Tulane Football Blog

Meet the new boss same as the old boss. All the speculation and lists put together by myself and others were way off. Doug Hertz kept this secret and got his man. Feels like we’ve gone back in time as the northern Iowa athletic director has been selected seemingly out of nowhere to be the next athletic director uptown. This was successful 8 years ago. Can lightning strike twice? Let’s get into who David Harris is and his credentials for the job.

Background

David Harris, a Baton Rouge native, was named the University of Northern Iowa’s eighth Director of Athletics in 2016 and in his eighth year at the helm of Panther Athletics in 2023-24.Under Harris’ leadership, UNI Athletics announced “Panthers Rising, A Strategic Plan To Achieve Unprecedented Success” in academics, competition and all of its endeavors in the fall of 2018. In partnership with the university, Harris has also been a key piece of UNI’s “Our Tomorrow”campaign, which includes a $50-million renovation plan for the historic UNI-Dome.

Conference realignment, athletic success and fundraising are the big 3 for our new AD so let’s break them down individually.

Conference Realignment

Many including myself have watched this years AAC football season with dismay realizing the competition level in the conference is moving in the wrong direction. 4 teams over .500 out of 14 this season.

Most will agree that the ACC is the ideal landing spot for us with Clemson and Florida State primed to leave at the first possible chance. Can Harris deliver on that goal?

Harris’s Resume includes stops at Ole Miss (his alma mater), Wisconsin, Iowa State and finally North Iowa. A strong amount of power 5 programs here with a most of major conferences covered. The ACC is conspicuously absent.

In the spring of 2019, Harris was appointed to the NCAA Division I Council. This council is chaired by our old friend Lynda Tealer and includes one AD from each conference. The ACC representative is Heather Lyke, the athletic director at the university of Pittsburgh. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics honored her as a 2023 Cushman & Wakefield AD of the Year Award recipient. Strikes me as a good person to know if you’re potentially trying to join the Atlantic Coast Conference.

With that being said, northern Iowa has never changed conferences, and he has not worked at a power 5 school in 8 years. Can he deliver the change we so desperately need? The answer is time will tell, but I find it very hard to believe he’s more connected to top power brokers in the ACC than someone currently in the conference.

Conference Realignment Grade: B-

Athletic Success

The North Iowa football program, has gone 51-42 in the past eight years and reached the FCS playoffs five straight times from 2017-21, with one trip to the quarterfinals. NIU went 6-5 this season replicating its record from last year. He did not make a football coaching hire in his tenure as he inherited long time coach Mark Farley. Some might think great, he is inheriting a long time coach here, but we all know this situation may be contentious.

Tulane opted for Harris over Willie’s pick and current Tulane deputy athletic director, kortne Gosha. As my good friend Ed Daniels wrote, the Tulane brass is telling Willie to shut up and coach. In my opinion, keeping the greatest football coach ever to step foot on Ben Weiner drive happy would behoove the university. I hope that I am wrong but I do think going against Willie’s wishes for AD may signify that Tulane is planning for life after Fritz. He is 63 and will not coach forever, but until he says that’s he done, let’s try and keep his thoughts at the top of mind.

The Northern Iowa basketball team, which famously upset Kansas in the tournament in 2010 and Texas in March madness before Harris arrived in 2016. Prior to today the two names I knew from northern Iowa were Troy dannen and Ali Farokhmanesh. The panthers have not made the tournament in the Harris era. The Panthers were 114-98 under his watch entering this season, winning two regular-season Missouri Valley championships in that span.

The Northern Iowa baseball team does not exist. While victories on the field are not everything to an athletic director, it is all the fans will care about. The bottom line is UNI did not bring home any major sports titles while Harris was there.

Athletic Success: C

Fundraising

As mentioned above, Harris finds himself in the midst of a fundraising campaign. During Harris’s tenure the school had raised over $243 million towards Our Tomorrow: The Campaign for UNI as of September 30, 2023. UNI has received a $25 million gift, the largest donation in the history of the school, from alum David Wilson, ’70. The goal is to renovate the following:

Basketball practice facility

Basketball stadium

Track and Field complex

Soccer field

Football practice facility

Football stadium

This is a major upgrade that the panthers are undergoing and so far it seems to be going well. Say what you will but his eight years of experience as an AD is probably more than the rest of the candidates combined in the head job. Strong fundraisers create good facilities, good facilities bring in good recruits and good recruits win ball games. That’s the formula.

Fundraising B+

Overall Grade B-

At first I was a little bit disappointed, I wanted a splashy power 5 hire with ACC ties but what we got is a very well rounded candidate with a resume devoid of major holes. I have no idea what kind of on field success Harris will have. He can start by delivering a move to the ACC and a confirmation that Willie will return until he retires. If he does those two things, he will get an A in my book.