U of M Athletic Director
Mark Coyle became the University of Minnesota’s athletics director in May 2016. A former athletic administrator at Minnesota, he returned to Gopher Athletics after serving as athletics director at Syracuse University and Boise State University and as deputy athletics director at the University of Kentucky.
During Coyle’s first year leading Gopher Athletics, Minnesota’s student-athletes recorded the highest grade-point average in school history, remained the top public institution in the country with respect to NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) Public Recognition Awards and saw 300 student-athletes recognized as Academic All-Big Ten. In addition, the Gophers won five Big Ten championships and had two teams (volleyball and women’s hockey) advance to the Final Four. Men’s hockey won its sixth straight regular season conference title, a Division I men’s ice hockey record, and men’s basketball engineered the largest turnaround in Division I last season and returned to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Overall, the department once again finished in the Top 30 of the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, which measures athletics success across all sports.
While at Syracuse, Coyle guided the Orange during a year (2015-16) in which two of its programs won national titles and three, including both men's and women's basketball, competed in Final Fours. The Orange also won five Atlantic Coast Conference titles under Coyle's watch.
During Coyle's tenure at Boise State, Bronco teams posted the highest grade-point average in school history, with 18 teams setting team GPA records. Boise State also won 12 conference championships in six different sports during under Coyle's leadership. During the 2014-15 academic year, Boise State was the only Football Bowl Subdivision school in the country to win conference titles in football, men's basketball and women's basketball.
Prior to joining Boise State, Coyle served in several athletics roles at the University of Kentucky, eventually rising to the title of deputy director of athletics. At Kentucky, Coyle led a team that raised more than $140 million in annual donations and capital pledges, while also serving as a sport administrator for multiple teams, including the famed men's basketball program, which reached the NCAA Final Four in 2011 while Coyle oversaw the program.
During his first tenure at Minnesota, from 2001 to 2005, Coyle served as Associate Athletic Director for External Relations, a role in which he was responsible for managing the marketing and sales unit, athletic communications, the ticket office and licensing.
A former football student-athlete, Coyle graduated from Drake University with his bachelor degree in English in 1991. He earned his master's degree in teaching from Drake in 1992 and a master's degree in sports administration from Florida State University in 1993.