Data from 
The College Athletics Job Market, 2026 YTD vs. 2025
Every posting on the CollegeSports.jobs network created January through September, compared year over year.
| Postings | 3,403 | +20.3% vs 2,829 |
| Returning employers | +19.6% | more postings from 416 repeat employers |
| New employers | 198 | first posting this year · 443 jobs |
| Postings per employer | 5.5 | up from 4.8 |
1 · VOLUME
Hiring is up 20%, led by employers coming back for more
The 416 employers that posted on CollegeSports.jobs in 2025 came back in 2026 and posted 19.6% more jobs. They were joined by 198 employers that had not posted during the same months of 2025, who added another 443 jobs. Departments are filling more seats, which lines up with the first full hiring cycle after the House settlement took effect on July 1, 2025.
2 · LEVEL OF ATHLETICS
Division I and Division III lead the growth
D1 postings rose 30% and D3 rose 39%. D2 grew 26% and NAIA grew 10%. At D1 the number of hiring schools barely moved (318 to 322), but each one posted more: about 7.0 jobs per school, up from 5.4. D1 departments are going deeper on CollegeSports.jobs, posting more roles per school.
3 · LEVEL OF RESPONSIBILITY
Growth is at the bottom and the very top. The Assistant/Associate AD layer is shrinking.
- Early-career roles grew fastest. Assistant Director/Coordinator postings rose 38%, entry/intern/GA rose 24%, and assistant coaches rose 32%.
- The Associate/Assistant AD tier fell 9%. Associate AD postings fell 19%, from 123 to 100. This is the only tier that shrank in absolute numbers.
- The executive tier grew 16%, driven by "Senior Administration," CFO, AVP and Chief of Staff postings. Athletic Director/Commissioner searches fell slightly (47 to 44), and outside D1 they fell 20%.
- Each job carries more scope. The median job description grew from 442 to 485 words (+10%). Senior admin descriptions grew the most, at +18%. The fewer AD-level jobs that are being posted cover more ground.
4 · FUNCTIONS BEING HIRED
Revenue and performance roles are growing. Compliance, NIL and executive leadership are not.
Postings tagged ticket operations (+57%), sales (+55%) and sports performance (+52%) grew more than twice as fast as the market. Broadcast/production, student-athlete development, creative & digital media and equipment also outpaced it. Compliance (−12%), AD/Commissioner (−16%), non-AD executive leadership (−23%) and NIL (−32%) all fell.
In 2026, schools have been aggressively building their revenue generation teams.
% change in postings tagged with each Responsibility Area. Areas with fewer than 40 postings in 2025 are excluded. A posting can carry more than one area.
5 · SKILLS IN DEMAND
Descriptions now ask for revenue, data and premium-experience skills
Share of postings whose description mentions each skill or theme. The largest gains are in sponsorship/corporate partnerships (11% to 16% of postings, and 28% to 36% of employers), game-day and event experience, premium seating and hospitality, analytics and data, CRM systems, and revenue generation. Requirements for a master's degree or MBA rose from 2.2% to 3.4% of postings.
- AI is showing up for the first time. 28 postings list AI as a skill (prompting, AI-assisted design, AI for operations), up from 8. A separate 16 postings now tell applicants that AI is used to screen them. There were none in 2025.
- The new governance vocabulary is arriving. Mentions of the College Sports Commission or NIL Go went from 10 to 38 postings. New titles include "Director of Strategic Resource & Cap Management," "Operations Analyst for Roster Management" and "Director, Revenue Share & NIL Operations."
- Diversity and inclusion language is being trimmed. It appears in 17% of postings, down from 23%. The share of employers using it anywhere held steady (38% to 36%), so it is being cut from individual postings more than dropped by institutions.
Keyword matching on posting descriptions (HTML stripped). Treat it as directional: a mention can be a requirement, a duty or boilerplate.
6 · SPORTS AND COACHING
Coaching hiring tracked the market, with assistant coaches leading
Coaching postings rose 23% (898 to 1,106), in line with the overall market. Assistant coach postings grew about twice as fast as head coach postings (+32% vs. +17%).
Women's-sport coaching postings rose 16% and men's rose 21%. Women's sports still account for nearly twice as many coaching postings.
By sport, football (+19%), women's basketball (+23%) and baseball (+21%) led in volume. Swimming & diving, golf, rowing and acrobatics & tumbling grew fastest from small bases. Softball, track & field and wrestling were flat or down.
7 · THREE-YEAR VIEW
Back to 2024: 2025 was the rules year, and 2026 is the revenue year
Going back to April 2024, the three-year view confirms most of the 2026 trends and shows that several of them began in 2025.
| 2024 · same 255 employers | 1,331 | baseline |
| 2025 | 1,420 | +7% |
| 2026 | 1,632 | +15% |
The functions hiring changed in two phases
In 2025, compliance (+24%) and NIL (+32%) postings grew while ticketing (+4%), development (+2%), creative (+2%) and sales (−33%) were flat or down. In 2026 that reversed. Compliance and NIL fell back to about their 2024 levels, and ticketing (+49%), sales (+47%), sports performance (+52%), development (+27%) and creative (+23%) took off. Departments appear to have staffed for the new rules first, then for the new revenue.
The Assistant/Associate AD level has been thinning for two years
| Share of postings, April–September | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate AD | 5.5% | 4.1% | 3.1% |
| Assistant AD | 6.6% | 6.2% | 5.3% |
| Assistant + Associate AD combined | 12.1% | 10.2% | 8.4% |
New terms arrived in 2025, established skills gained ground, and DEI language receded
| Share of postings mentioning… | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New terms | |||
| Revenue sharing | 0.2% | 1.4% | 1.8% |
| Roster limits / cap management | 0.4% | 1.2% | 2.0% |
| College Sports Commission / NIL Go | 0.0% | 0.3% | 0.8% |
| AI as a skill | 0.3% | 0.3% | 1.0% |
| Established skills gaining ground | |||
| Sponsorship / corporate partnerships | 10.3% | 11.5% | 15.7% |
| Game-day / event operations | 16.0% | 19.7% | 23.8% |
| Mental health / well-being | 15.7% | 16.4% | 19.0% |
| Fundraising / major gifts | 22.0% | 29.0% | 27.4% |
| Receding | |||
| Diversity / inclusion / equity language | 34.4% | 20.7% | 17.9% |
8 · HIRING ON COLLEGESPORTS.JOBS
More schools are hiring in volume. The Unlimited Bundle is built for that.
The numbers in this report describe a market where the same departments are posting more often, filling more entry-level and GA roles, and hiring for more functions at once. For a department posting a job or two a year, paying per post makes sense. For a department posting every month, paying per post adds up fast.
| Employers with 10+ jobs | 111 | +37% vs 81 in 2025 YTD |
| D1 schools with 10+ jobs | 83 | +51% vs 55 |
| Share from 5+ job employers | 79% | of all postings, up from 74% |
What the Unlimited Bundle includes
- Unlimited job postings for a full year, with no per-post approvals or purchase orders.
- Newsletter distribution to the people who do the hiring and the people looking: D1.ticker (37,000+ subscribers), Coaches.wire (29,500+), D2.ticker (6,400+), D3.ticker (4,400+), NAIA.ticker (3,100+) and NJCAA.ticker (nearly 1,000).
- Collegiate Sports Connect access, a database of 30,000+ college athletics administrators.
- The College.town Treatment: targeted outreach to qualified professionals for your openings.
Bundles by division
| Division | Active bundles | All-time bundles | Avg. 2026 savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1.jobs | 129 | 300 | $2,936 |
| D2.jobs | 37 | 113 | $1,361 |
| D3.jobs | 57 | 138 | $1,429 |
| NAIA.jobs | 13 | 34 | $920 |
| Other | 1 | 3 | – |
| Total | 237 | 588 | $2,087 |
Average savings vs. paying for each posting individually, among bundle holders who have saved in 2026.
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“ The unlimited job posting bundle is a great value versus piecemeal postings and the D1.ticker is the place to go for collegiate sports news and job openings. Stuart Cochran |
View package options · Why invest in a bundle · Questions? Email jobs@wearecollegetown.com
Bundle and savings figures are from CollegeSports.jobs records. Subscriber counts are current newsletter lists. Employer counts are from this report's Jan – Sep posting data.
ABOUT THE DATA
- Source: CollegeSports.jobs posting exports.
- This covers jobs posted on this network, not every opening in college athletics. The returning-employer figure (+19.6%) shows growth among employers that posted in both years.
- Experience Level and Responsibility Area are chosen by the employer at posting. Skill and title trends come from keyword matching and are directional.
A College.town Property · Analysis of CollegeSports.jobs posting data · October 2026