Surrounded by about 30 of his friends and university supporters, the athletic director at San Diego State University J.D. Wicker (Beta Tau–Mississippi State ’89) celebrated bringing named the Sports Business Journal’s 2023 Athletic Director of the Year in New York this past May. A historic moment, Wicker is the first winner from a non-Power Five school.
Some say that Wicker did what the NFL could not do in San Diego – get a football stadium built with the city’s help. It took a legal and political battle just to get the rights for San Diego State to purchase the property for the stadium and extended campus. Now with a new stadium and talks of changes to the Big10, San Diego State is well positioned to accept an invitation to a Power Five conference.
Prior to returning as Athletic Director of San Diego State in 2016, Wicker was in facility operations at Southern Mississippi, Washington State, Georgia Tech, and San Diego State. Wicker studied accounting at Mississippi State and graduated in 1992. But when he was unhappy with his job at a major accounting firm, he decided to pursue a master’s degree in sports management at the University of Georgia.
Read the full article at SportsBusinessJournal.com.
