AMES, Iowa—Jamie Pollard, the longest-tenured athletic director in Iowa State University history, has received a five-year contract extension through June 30, 2030, ISU President Dr. Wendy Wintersteen announced on Friday.
“During Jamie’s 20 years, the university has celebrated all-time program bests academically and athletically, and significant growth in attendance,” Wintersteen said. “He has built a culture of success at Iowa State, while navigating the many changes in collegiate athletics. I also appreciate Jamie’s efforts to create a new vision for the Iowa State Center and athletic facilities through the CyTown entertainment district concept.”
Pollard, the nation’s third-longest serving active Power Four Director of Athletics, has led the Cyclones’ 18-sport intercollegiate athletics program to unprecedented academic and athletic success during his two-decade run in Ames, reimagining nearly every phase of the ISU program along the way.
The performance of Iowa State’s teams under his direction has been impressive. After finishing 35th in the 2023-24 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, its second-highest placement ever (34th) and third Top 45 finish in the last four seasons, the Cyclones ranked 27th in the final fall rankings of the 2024-25 academic year. ISU joins Tennessee as the only Division I schools whose football teams produced a double-digit win total and are currently ranked among the Top 10 in men’s basketball.
The 2024 Cyclone football team enjoyed its first 11-win season in program history, reached the Big 12 Championship game for the second time in five years and beat 15th-ranked Miami, 42-41, to win the Pop Tarts Bowl. The Cyclone men’s basketball team has spent the entire 2024-25 campaign ranked among the nation’s Top 10 and is poised to play in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-straight season, while the men’s cross country team finished second at the 2024 NCAA Championships, its second runner-up finish in the last four years.
Other achievements include:
- Investment of more than $340M in new construction and facility renovations impacting nearly every Cyclone sport; the two most-recent being the $90M, 110,000-square foot Stark Performance Center which opened in August 2021 to serve every Iowa State student-athlete, and the Gateway Pedestrian Bridge and RV Village which debuted in 2022 to further enhance the game day experience for Cyclone fans at Jack Trice Stadium.
- Secured the largest donation ever received by ISU Athletics – a $25 million gift from the Reiman family – that was the lead donation for Jack Trice Stadium’s south end zone enclosure which increased capacity to 61,500— the Big 12 Conference’s second-largest stadium.
- Since the 2011-12 academic year, ISU is the nation’s only school to average at least 50,000 fans at home football games (12-straight seasons), 12,000 fans at home men’s basketball games (14-straight years), and 9,000 fans at home women’s basketball games (16-straight seasons), excluding the COVID-impacted 2020-21 academic year.
The terms of Pollard’s new contract will be announced at a future date.
