Yahoo Sports EKU searching for new athletic director after Matt Roan departs for James Madison
Matt Roan, Eastern Kentucky’s director of athletics for the past four years and a vice president at the university, is leaving at the end of the 2023-24 school year to take on the same role at James Madison University.
EKU hired Roan in January 2020. His final day will be May 15, 2024.
“Matt has made a transformative impact on the EKU athletics program, leading our teams through the challenges of COVID-19 and securing landmark sponsorship deals for Roy Kidd Stadium and Alumni Coliseum,” EKU President David McFaddin said in a news release. “Matt is a person of such immense character and has guided our athletic program to greater heights. His dedication, along with the unwavering support of one of EKU’s biggest fans, Mallory Roan, and their family, will be sorely missed on the sidelines. Although we will miss him at EKU, we are excited for Matt as he returns to his home state of Virginia.”
Roan, a Virginia native who attended both Hargrave Military Academy and Virginia Tech, came to Eastern Kentucky from Nicholls State in Louisiana, where he was director of athletics for three-plus years after previously serving the Colonels as deputy director of athletics in 2015 and 2016.
At James Madison, Roan will take over for Jeff Bourne, who is retiring after 25 years in the position.
“I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to join the team at James Madison University and for the trust placed in me by President (Jonathan) Alger to lead James Madison Athletics,” Roan said in a news release. “This opportunity is special as it represents the ideal intersection of what is most important to me personally and professionally.”
Roan oversaw Eastern Kentucky’s move from the Ohio Valley Conference to the Atlantic Sun during his tenure but will reconnect with a former OVC rival upon his arrival in Harrisonburg. The Dukes recently hired former Morehead State head coach Preston Spradlin to take over their men’s basketball program.
“I am so thankful that we were asked to return to EKU in 2020 and lead athletics, which proved to be the right place at the right time for my family and me in many ways,” Roan of his time at EKU. “We have loved our opportunity here to try and make a positive difference on campus and in the community and I am hopeful that I have done just that.”
EKU’s news release said the school will begin a search immediately for a new athletic director and that an interim AD will be named in the coming weeks.
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