KU announces new athletics director

Jayhawks,

I am excited to announce that Travis Goff is joining the University of Kansas as our new director of athletics.

Travis brings more than 16 years of experience in athletics administration at the Division I level, most recently at Northwestern University, where he serves as deputy director of athletics and assistant vice president. In this role, he is a member of the department’s executive staff responsible for all high-level decisions and is a sport administrator for the football, volleyball and baseball programs. Before joining Northwestern, he served as associate athletics director for external affairs at Tulane University and worked in athletics development here at KU, where he earned his undergraduate degree.

Our search for an athletics director during the past several weeks resulted in conversations with a number of outstanding candidates, which speaks well of KU’s reputation on the national stage. Travis stood out due to his experience, his reputation as a man of integrity, and his demonstrated ability to connect with faculty, staff, alumni and donors.

I am especially impressed with Travis’ vision for KU. Travis understands the challenges we face and the changing landscape of collegiate athletics. At the same time, he is well-positioned to help us build on our recent successes in student-athlete healthcare, diversity and inclusion, and student-athlete academic achievement. The fact that he is a Jayhawk himself is an added bonus and will undoubtedly serve him well as he moves Kansas Athletics forward.

Travis will begin his new role immediately. I look forward to introducing him to the KU community at a news conference Wednesday, April 7 at 10 a.m. at the Lied Center.

I greatly appreciate the faculty, staff, alumni and friends who were instrumental to the process that helped bring Travis to KU. I especially want to thank our team of alumni advisors – Linda Ellis Sims, Ray Evans, John Ballard and Wayne Simien – each of whom brought tremendous expertise and passion to this process. I also want to thank Kurt Watson for providing strong counsel and stability as interim director of athletics.

This is an exciting day for the University of Kansas. We are delighted to have someone of Travis’ caliber joining our university, and I am confident that Kansas Athletics is in good hands under his leadership. Please join me in welcoming Travis, his wife, Nancy, and their children – Ellie, Carly, and Graham – to Lawrence.

Respectfully,

Doug

Douglas A. Girod
Chancellor