How Athletic Directors Can Improve Their Interviews

SPECIAL GUEST POST FROM DAN CHRISTENSEN 

By the time a coaching search reaches the finalist stage, it is easy for an athletic department to think primarily about one question:

Do we want to hire this person?

That is obviously important.

But the candidate is trying to answer an equally important question:

Do I actually want this job?

As part of our 2026 College Coaching Job Search Study (to be published soon), we asked more than 300 college coaches which parts of a finalist or campus interview would be most valuable to them.

The top responses were:

• Individual meeting with the athletic director — 68.9%
• Conversation with other coaches and athletics staff — 51.6%
• Detailed review of the program budget and available resources — 49.8%
• Tour of athletic facilities — 40.1%
• Conversation with current student-athletes — 36.7%
• Meeting with the president or senior leadership — 33.9%

The results offer a useful reminder for athletic directors:

A finalist visit should not just feel like one long audition.

The top three tell an important story

Look at what candidates valued most.

First, they want meaningful time with the athletic director.

Second, they want to talk with the people they would work alongside.

Third, they want to understand the resources they would actually have.

In simple terms, finalists are trying to answer three questions:

Can I work for this person?

Can I work with these people?

Can I succeed with what I’ll have available?

That is a pretty good framework for designing an on-campus interview.

The individual meeting with the AD being number one should not be surprising. For most head coaches, the athletic director will have a tremendous influence on their day-to-day experience.

Candidates want to understand your leadership style, communication, expectations, philosophy, and how you support coaches.

That probably requires more than 20 minutes squeezed between committee meetings.

Give finalists meaningful one-on-one time with you.

And remember that while you are evaluating their answers, they are evaluating yours.

Give candidates access to the people who can help them understand the culture

More than half of the coaches surveyed valued conversations with other coaches and athletics staff.

That is important because department culture is difficult to communicate through a job description or search committee.

Candidates learn it by experiencing it.

How do coaches interact with each other?

How do they talk about the department?

What is their relationship with the AD?

Do people seem comfortable?

Do they enjoy working there?

You do not have to manufacture those conversations or script your staff.

In fact, allowing finalists some genuine interaction with the people they may soon work beside can provide much more credibility than repeatedly telling them, “We have a great culture.”

By the finalist stage, candidates want specifics

Nearly half of respondents selected a detailed discussion of the program budget and available resources.

That fits one of the strongest themes we have seen throughout this study.

Coaches want to know what they will actually have to work with.

The campus visit is a good time to move beyond broad statements about institutional support and provide appropriate specifics.

What does the operating budget cover?

What recruiting resources are available?

What staffing support exists?

What fundraising expectations are attached to the position?

Where is there flexibility?

What resources are limited?

A strong candidate does not necessarily expect everything to be perfect.

But they do want an accurate picture of the opportunity they are considering.

Don’t make the entire visit about evaluating the candidate

One finding I found especially interesting was that only 20.4% selected the opportunity to present a vision for the program as one of the most valuable parts of the visit.

That does not mean institutions should stop asking finalists to present.

A presentation may be extremely helpful to the search committee.

But it is primarily valuable to the institution, not necessarily to the candidate.

That distinction matters.

If a finalist spends the entire day presenting, answering committee questions, and moving from one evaluator to another, the institution may learn a lot about the coach while the coach leaves without learning enough about the institution.

Build time into the visit for both sides.

Make the itinerary purposeful, not just busy

A good campus interview does not necessarily require finalists to meet everyone on campus.

Only 21.1% prioritized meetings with athletic training, strength and conditioning, or communications staff. Meetings with admissions and financial aid were selected by 17%.

That does not mean those areas are unimportant.

It may simply mean candidates do not need a separate meeting with every person who touches the program.

Sometimes the better approach is fewer meetings with more depth.

Give them quality time with the AD.

Let them talk with coaches.

Explain the resources.

Let them see the facilities.

Give them access to student-athletes when appropriate.

Bring senior leadership into the process when that relationship is particularly important to the position.

And then create some breathing room for the candidate to ask questions rather than scheduling every five minutes of the day.

Remember that you are recruiting, too

This becomes particularly important in competitive or difficult searches.

Getting someone to campus does not mean they are going to accept the job.

They may be interviewing elsewhere.

They may have a good current position.

Their family may be unsure about relocating.

Or they may simply decide after spending a day on campus that the opportunity is not what they expected.

That means athletic directors need to think about the finalist experience from both perspectives.

Certainly evaluate the candidate.

Ask difficult questions.

Test their thinking.

Determine whether they can lead your program.

But also help them understand why this could be a great opportunity.

Talk honestly about the strengths.

Explain the challenges.

Introduce them to good people.

Give them the information they need.

Show them what makes your institution different.

And give them enough access to determine whether they can see themselves succeeding there.

A successful campus visit should answer questions for both sides

At the end of the visit, the athletic director should have a clearer answer to:

“Can this person lead our program?”

But the candidate should also have a clearer answer to:

“Can I see myself working here?”

The best finalist interviews accomplish both.

Because recruiting does not stop once you identify the candidates you want.

In many searches, that is when recruiting them really begins.