Mike Bobinski’s resume reveals he can do at least two things particularly well — hire basketball coaches and graduate athletes.
Georgia Tech is banking on more than that. On Wednesday, Tech made him its eighth athletic director after he spent 12 years in the same position at Xavier. He is scheduled to begin at Tech on April 1.
“He’s clearly very bright, he’s got an excellent work ethic,” said acting athletic director Paul Griffin, who has worked with Bobinski in the latter’s work on the NCAA men’s basketball committee and the former’s role as 2013 Final Four manager. “He’s very well connected in our industry and I look forward to helping him with his transition.”
Bobinski will be introduced at a Friday morning news conference. His hire completes a three-month search process that began after Dan Radakovich ended his six-year term in October to take the same job at Clemson.
“Mike’s proven record of success and his diverse background in sports, finance and development, as well as his unwavering commitment to student-athletes, make him the ideal person to lead our athletic program,” Tech president G.P. “Bud” Peterson said in a statement.
According to the most recent NCAA figures, Xavier ranked 11th in Division I in graduation success rate at 97 percent. One of his other noteworthy accomplishments at Xavier was keeping the basketball team thriving with a series of new coaches. In 2001, Bobinski hired Thad Matta and associate head coach Sean Miller. Miller became head coach in 2004 when Matta left to coach Ohio State. (Miller was promoted to head coach during Bobinski’s two-year stint as the school’s vice president for development. He returned as AD in 2006.)
In 2009, when Miller left for Arizona, Bobinski hired Chris Mack. Starting in 2001, the Musketeers have made all but one NCAA tournament and reached the Sweet 16 four of the past five years. Of the school’s 18 teams, nine earned 40 team or individual spots in NCAA championship competition under Bobinski.
Bobinski also serves as the chair of the NCAA men’s basketball committee, which oversees the NCAA tournament, which will conclude with the Final Four in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome on April 6-8. Coincidentally, Tech is the host institution for the Final Four. Griffin and Bobinski have worked together the last few years in those capacities. Bobinski, in fact, was in Atlanta last March when Xavier played in the South region semifinals at the dome. Griffin, Tech's senior associate AD and the acting AD since October, will be the event manager for the Final Four.
Bobinski inherits a department that Thursday will celebrate the opening of another new facility, the Ken Byers Tennis Complex. Under Radakovich’s watch, Tech built a softball field and an indoor football practice facility and renovated Alexander Memorial Coliseum, which opened in November as McCamish Pavilion.
Among the challenges will be ones that Radakovich also battled — filling Bobby Dodd Stadium and developing new revenue streams. He’ll also have to become more acquainted with BCS-level football, as Xavier does not have a football team. Before arriving at Xavier in 1998, he was athletic director at Akron from 1994-98. The Zips play in the Mid-American Conference.
Like Radakovich, Bobinski has a finance background. He graduated in 1979 from Notre Dame, where he played baseball, with a degree in business management and is a licensed certified public accountant.
