New AD Jim Smith on taking over at Maryland, why he took the job, improving fan experience

Ahmed Ghafir
Jun 5
7 min read

Two weeks after being introduced as the new athletic director at the University of Maryland, Jim Smith sits down with the legendary Johnny Holliday to talk about his new role, improving fan experience in College Park, his focus and more:

On Smith’s background within the Big Ten, experience prior to Maryland

“I've just been really fortunate to work with great people and have great leaders at each of those stops and been a leader at a couple of those stops as well. And it's great to be able to pull all the different pieces together that you learn along the way and apply them to the job you're in. I think that's been a little bit of – my ability is to be able to learn from where I've been and take it to where I'm going.”

On why Smith accepted the University of Maryland AD role

Smith: “I've got that question a lot. So two part answer to that. One, when I was presented with the opportunity to be considered –

Johnny: “were you surprised”

Smith: “Very. Very. I was very surprised. But when I read the job description and then did the first interview, I realized that it Maryland was willing to do something no other university was willing to do and that was to look at the athletic program through a different lens and how it can move up in the Big Ten from a revenue perspective and knowing that it's going to take perhaps a different approach to do that. The second part of it, though, was and equally as important, it wasn't just the job description that said, hey, we want something different. We want someone with the experiences of someone like myself, but it was the president. You also have to have a line - you can write a job description, but you have to have alignment with a president that believes that this is the path forward, that's willing to try this as the path forward, with the ultimate goal of making all our programs that much more successful and making our student athlete experience incredible. So that's what the end result of what we hope is going to happen during my time here, is the revenue is going to increase. We're going to be highly competitive in all our sports in the Big Ten because we already have the coaching component here. Coaches here are great. I mean, it's really amazing talking to them and hearing their passion for Maryland. So that part is figured out. The rest of the puzzle is what we have to do together.”

On what Smith is prioritizing when he officially takes over

“I have definite ideas of what I want to do, but I think it'd be premature without coming in and doing a little listening and hearing what's been done, what's been successful, what hasn't worked, why hasn't it worked and it’s not going to take very long. The one thing about being in this industry a long time, it doesn’t take a lot of time to know what questions to ask and be able to move forward here pretty fast.”

On improving the fan experience

“I think it's a critical, important piece of all sports. Whether it's professional or college, the piece - everybody's passionate and will come when you win. What you want them to come when you win and leave and say that fan experience was incredible. And that's one takeaway, is the Braves consistently get ranked at the highest level of fan experience. Because they spend a lot of time thinking about that. We've only won one world championship in the last 20 years. So it's not about just winning championships. It's about creating a really great environment to see a really competitive team. The championship piece is really hard. Everything has to go right to win a championship, but everything doesn't have to go right to create an incredible fan experience.”

On managing the 2025 MLB All-Star game

“Again, great team at the Braves. It's never one person would you have success like they've had. And, the All-Star game, is a unique animal in that it's a big event. It requires commitments from many different municipalities, support of the team. So it's working all those things together. So I was pleased that Dr. Pines would allow me to finish that project because it's really important to the Braves, it's really important to Atlanta, and it's really important to me. So I'm very blessed that that opportunity was given to me to finish that.”

On whether there’s a difference between college vs. pro sports

“I think the difference is that our student athlete has way more responsibilities than what a professional athlete does. And so we have to make sure we're understanding of that while building this program up. So from a pure business perspective, I think you're right. They're very similar. But I think the component of the student athlete that's introduced here and making sure, because we're dealing with many times young student athletes, and we're so we're developing them as young adults as well as elite athletes. And so when we're doing both of those things and we're doing them at a high level, that's when we know we'll have achieved it at a very high level.”

On the challenges in the modern day landscape of college athletics

“When I was doing my press conference, I referenced all the things changing in college athletics, and then I paused for a second and said, am I insane? Is this actually doable? And the answer is, yes, it is. But there is a little bit of there's going to be constant uncertainty. We just hope we get there one step at a time. This is about the building blocks. The first piece this legislation, the judge needs to finalize your ruling, which will give us that first building block and a big chunk of money that we can then deploy to our student athletes.”

On who was a mentor for Jim Smith

“Gene [Smith] is great. I've been blessed with so many opportunities to win, to work - and win - with incredible executives. So I can take you through the journey, and whether you're a big professional wrestling fan or not. Vince, when I worked for Vince McMahon, he was a marketing genius and he understood that and that was back in the 90s. So then I worked for Andy Geiger and Andy had a vision. He had a vision for what he believed was the greatest student athlete experience and winning combination. Those two things together, and Andy taught me a lot, and I worked for Lamar Hunt and running his soccer team, right? Another guy who you know is the founder of today's NFL with the AFL and the NFL merger. And then I went to work for Arthur Blank right, who started Home Depot, has the Falcons, launched Atlanta United. You learn so much from being around these people. Then when I went back to Ohio State, I got to know Gene and could see the experience that Gene brought to Ohio State and elevated what was already an incredible program. So it's great to have all these people that you can rely on as you go through your career and learn from. And I think that's been really important for my career throughout and in the successes that I've had.”

On Smith’s biggest concern about Maryland prior to accepting the job

“I didn’t know Dr. Pines. So always on a college campus, the president is so important. And it wasn't sure how that relationship with the trustees and things like that because everything else about this job is incredible. You're in a massive market. You've got an incredible academic institution. You have great coaches, really good administrators. So where's the missing piece here? And so once all that kind of fell into place, you're like this can be special. I think we can be really special. I think that's the goal, is to be really special. There are special people here. We need to get all our programs up to being consistently competitive and achieving at high levels.”

On meeting the Maryland coaches

“[I] met most of them, talked to many on the phone. Very exciting. I didn't get any different sense meeting them in person than when I talked to them on the phone. They're Maryland all the way through and they care about this place and they want it to be successful. And there seems to be - that's early - seems to be a little bit more collegial feel among them in how they want the program to move forward.”

On knowing the Big Ten landscape

“It is tough. Every week is going to be a mass a massive challenge in whatever sport we're in. And I think part of it is that's where resources and people make a difference. The people are right, the resources we have to get right.”

On family

“It’s really important to me. Two parts of the family - my family and my family here at work. My family here at work, we spend so much time together that you have to know who you're working with and how their families are and making sure we're going to constantly create an environment where families are welcome. We all want to achieve at a high level. The majority of us are a high type A and we want to go hard but there's got to be always time carved away to be with your family. My personal one is, I have four children. I've been married 32 years. My wife's been here with me. We're just thrilled to be coming to College Park. And my children are as well, although they're mostly grown at this point.”

Related Links