Exclusive: Why Mike Buddie was so eager to become the next AD at TCU

It’s been a hectic last 24 hours for new TCU athletic director Mike Buddie as he navigated the New Year’s Eve holiday and finalized the deal to become the next leader of the Horned Frogs athletics program.

The school formally announced Buddie as its new athletic director on New Year’s Day after a successful six-year stint at Army. Buddie said he was appreciative of his time at West Point, but he said the decision to head to Fort Worth was an easy one.

“Fort Worth, Texas, is a fantastic place to call home,” Buddie said in an exclusive phone interview with the Star-Telegram on Wednesday. “(This) is an institution that’s value-based and mission driven with clearly incredible alignment between the chancellor, the president and this transition of their career paths. It’s the type of leadership you need to have in place to do great things.

“The historical success of those athletic programs and being able to compete at the highest level while maintaining integrity and a commitment to education. I’ve always had (TCU) on my radar.”

After taking over at Army after a stint at Furman, Buddie said he was in no rush to leave West Point for just any opportunity. It needed to be the right fit and situation and TCU checked all of the boxes he wanted in his next position.

“You get the opportunity to be at West Point, it kind of changes your perspective on things,” Buddie said. “It really put me in a position to be patient. When this opportunity came open it was a quick and easy decision to pursue it.”

At Army, Buddie helped the program join the American Athletic Conference and spearheaded fundraising campaigns to renovate Munchie Stadium.

He had similar success in Furman as he helped improve the basketball program and secured large sums for the football and volleyball programs.

Fundraising will still be important at TCU, but the task is a bit different as TCU is already in good standing with most of its athletic programs. Buddie said his goal will be to help take the Horned Frogs to even higher heights in the new era of revenue sharing that will begin later this year.

“We certainly need to be in a leadership position in the Big 12,” Buddie said. “As we learned recently, you can’t let your guard down, you never know what realignment is out there on the horizon. As we’re going into uncharted waters with revenue sharing and continuing how to best operate within this new world of the transfer portal.

“Being proactive and positioning the department for all these new challenges and opportunities is job one. Then at the core of what all of us get into this business for is to win championships. I think if you’re competing for a Big 12 championship, you’re going to be in the discussion for a national championship.”

Buddie said TCU’s potential was greater than many of the schools he considered in the past. The Horned Frogs made the national championship game in football in 2022 and have made multiple College World Series.

A big part of Buddie’s vision will come down to revenue sharing and name, image and likeness. Buddie knows some will have questions if he’s ready to navigate that as athletes at Army weren’t allowed to accept NIL deals because they were considered federal employees and Army also wasn’t a program that dealt a lot with the transfer portal.

The questions are fair, but Buddie says he’s been preparing for those challenges even while he didn’t necessarily have to worry about them at Army.

“For the past six years, I’ve been in every room at all the leadership events where all the ADs at the FBS level huddle,” Buddie said. “What I’ve learned is no one really understands NIL. I’ve been in the back of the room listening to Big 10 ADs, SEC ADs lament over the challenges.

“And certainly what’s going to happen this summer will make NIL less important, but it will still be plenty important. For me, I didn’t have to deal with it, but I’ve certainly been paying attention. I just think if you have an institution and a program that people are willing to invest in, you just have to get the right people in the room and ask them to invest. There’s no funny business anymore, it’s truly saying this is what we need to be successful and there are creative options out there that some institutions have implemented that I’m sure we’ll be looking at.”

While Buddie may not have a ton of experience with NIL, he believes his time at smaller programs like Furman and Wake Forest along with his time at Army will still be very valuable at TCU. Those programs didn’t have the same resources the Horned Frogs have, but Buddie was still able to maximize what he had at both stops.

“It makes you hungry and it makes you innovative,” Buddie said. “You have to come up with ways to recruit and retain young people at a place like Army West Point that certainly has challenges and a five-year service commitment. In order to stay competitive, we had to operate at a high level as a fundraising platform.

“We had to operate at a high level to find new revenue streams so that we could be competitive, especially coming out of COVID. I’ve always loved to have challenges, I’m driven everyday to get better. What I think will be exciting at TCU is to continue to find those revenue streams in a time where college athletics is at an inflection point.”

Buddie said his job used to be about raising money for stadium upgrades and scholarship funds, but now he understands one of his primary tasks will be about revenue and making sure TCU is able to share with incoming athletes.

It’s a new era for TCU as college athletics also enters into a new era nationally. It’ll be challenging for every athletic director across the country, but Buddie believes he has the experience and track record to successfully navigate this new frontier.