Introductory Press Conference
Matt Roan was chosen as Eastern Kentucky University’s Vice President and Director of Athletics in January 2020 and recently agreed to a contract extension that could keep him at the helm of EKU Athletics through 2027.
"EKU Athletics has experienced significant growth and expansion under the leadership of VP and Director of Athletics Matt Roan," said EKU President David McFaddin in announcing the extension. "He not only has elevated the EKU Athletics brand, but he has also done so with a focus on the institutional values of the University - providing an excellent experience for our student-athletes, our student body, our alumni and our fans."
In his role, Roan leads 18 NCAA Division I programs, serves as a member of the President’s Cabinet, and recently began a four-year term on the NCAA’s Division I Council and Division I Football Oversight Committee, after previously serving on the Division I Football Championship Committee.
A former Division I student-athlete and a licensed attorney, Roan returned to EKU after leading the Nicholls State University athletics department in Thibodaux, Louisiana, from November 2016 through January 2020. A familiar face to EKU fans, Roan served previously as the deputy director of athletics in 2015 and 2016, after serving as a special assistant to the president and working with the counsel’s office after first arriving in Richmond in the fall of 2013. At his first Board of Regents meeting as AD, Roan was tasked with improving Athletics’ marketing efforts, increasing student attendance and community service, and improving facilities. The Department of Athletics has accomplished this, and much more.
Leadership
Upon his arrival in Richmond, Roan was almost immediately forced to navigate COVID-19. Roan worked closely with campus and other health experts and to date, EKU Athletics has not had a contest or event canceled due to issues within any of its programs. Under his leadership, the EKU Athletics Change Coalition was created during the summer of 2020, whose charge was and remains to focus on discussion, education and action with respect to belonging inside Athletics. That fall, Roan created a nine-game “Season of Opportunity” for EKU Football with two games broadcast nationally on ESPN and FS1, ultimately culminating with the NCAA-approved inaugural Opportunity Bowl hosted, and won, by EKU.
The organizational structure has been strategically evolving and is now focused on engagement, experience, investment and participation, and competitive excellence, with Roan adding several full-time positions in strategic and emerging areas, bolstering and maximizing coaching staffs, and developing new executive and senior leadership teams. In particular, Roan has been committed to expanding health and well-being resources available to EKU student-athletes. In addition to bolstering the Bratzke Student-Athlete Academic Success Center, Sports Medicine and Sports Performance staffs, in early 2023 Roan hired the department's first-ever Director of Student-Athlete Mental Health and Performance Services. The recent launch of the Complete Colonel program, which prioritizes community service, academics, supporting one another, leadership development and university engagement, further evidences the commitment to the holistic student-athlete experience. Colonel student-athletes routinely give back to local schools and community organizations, logging nearly 1300 community service hours during the most recent academic year.
Roan has hired a total of five head coaches since arriving in Richmond. In the second year under Head Coach Jeff Patton, Beach Volleyball has since shattered the program record for wins in a season and posted a winning record in the regular season for the first time ever; in two seasons, Head Coach Greg Todd has led the Women’s Basketball program to the most wins in seven years and its first postseason victory since 2016-17; and in his second year, Baseball’s Head Coach, Chris Prothro, led the team to 38 victories, the most since 1990, a division championship, and the ASUN tournament semifinals. Roan has also been successful in executing extensions for several other head coaches.
Effective July 1, 2021, Roan led EKU’s transition into the Atlantic Sun Conference, which has allowed EKU to more effectively engage with prospective students and alumni in and around thriving cities in a growing part of the country. The 2022-23 athletics campaign saw the Colonel Tennis programs return to varsity competition following their suspension in spring 2018, as Roan reinstated the programs in December 2021. 2023 marks the first year EKU will play football in the newly-branded United Athletic Conference, a collection of schools from the ASUN and Western Athletic Conference.
Growth
On the facilities front, Roan has led the construction of an all-new on-campus beach volleyball facility, the repurposing of the former student recreation center into the Erdmann Olympic Sports Training Center (XC/T&F and Soccer) and the Moberly Building into a football operations center, the installation of a new surface and lights at Tom Samuels Track, all-new turf and lights at Roy Kidd Stadium and new turf at the Presnell practice facility, entirely new turf at Earle Combs Stadium (Baseball), and new Daktronics video boards for EKU Baseball and Softball. The highlight, however, has been the announcement of at least a $31.35 million renovation to Alumni Coliseum and Baptist Health Arena to begin in March 2024.
These investments and the overall financial strength of EKU Athletics have been made possible largely because of the tremendous momentum in an increase in ticket sales, philanthropy and partnerships. With the return of ticket and sponsorship sales back in-house as components of Athletics, between FY20 and FY22, the following percentage increases have occurred:
Continuing the upward trajectory and with a desire to Elevate Eastern, during 2022 Roan helped secure a lead arena naming rights investment of $2.5 million from Baptist Health and a $1.15 million football field naming investment from CG Bank.
Colonel Nation and the Maroon Platoon continue to show up and show out and be treated to best-in-class game day experiences, as Football ranked 11th nationally in total attendance during 2022 and 16th in average attendance with the highest student attendance since 2016, Men’s Basketball led the ASUN in average attendance during 2022-23 (first time leading the conference in school history) and increased overall attendance 17% over the previous season, Women’s Basketball saw a 30% increase in 2022-23 over the previous year, and Softball increased 28% from ’22 to ’23 on top of a 29% increase from ’21 to ’22. EKU Baseball attendance rose 43% in 2022 over 2021 and 28% over 2019.
Excellence
In the classroom, the Colonels have achieved excellence under Roan’s watch. Spring 2023 was the 23rd consecutive semester with a combined student-athlete GPA above 3.00. Other highlights include:
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Highest single-semester GPA on record (3.36) in spring 2020
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Spring 2022 GPA of 3.239 was the second-highest cumulative S-A GPA in department history
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3.20 GPA in spring 2023 with 16 of 18 programs earning a 3.0 or better, 67 student-athletes earning a 4.0, 104 making the Dean’s List, and 236 Colonel Scholars
The Colonels have also been successful in competition earning Learfield Directors’ Cup points each year. Women’s Cross Country won the 2020-21 OVC Championship, while the men’s program won the ASUN title in 2022 and Head Coach Cory Erdmann earned conference coach of the year honors both times. Men’s Basketball’s 22-7 record in 2020-21 produced the highest winning percentage since 1964-65, the fourth most total wins in program history, and the most conference wins (15) ever in a season. 2022-23 saw EKU Hoops finish with 23 wins, the third most in one season in program history, and advance to the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational. Softball won the 2021 OVC Softball Tournament Championship and advanced to the Knoxville Regional. EKU Football won the 2022 ASUN Championship and earned the ASUN-WAC postseason automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division I Football Championship, participating for the first time since 2014. Head Coach Walt Wells earned ASUN Conference Coach of the Year for 2021 and 2022.
Individually, Ragga Kristinsdottir competed at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships Ann Arbor Regional, finishing inside the top 30, and numerous track and field student-athletes have competed at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Most notably, Ahmed Jaziri won the national championship in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. During Roan’s tenure, EKU student-athletes have accumulated 37 individual academic awards and the following athletic accomplishments:
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42 All-Conference awards
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4 All-Region awards
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12 All-Americans
For academic year 21-22, six teams earned perfect single-year NCAA Academic Progress Rate scores, while EKU student-athletes earned a 88% NCAA Graduation Success Rate the same year.
Finally, in this new era of intercollegiate athletics, Roan spearheaded the launch of the One of One initiative in June 2021 in anticipation of Kentucky’s executive order regarding Name, Image and Likeness, and has since partnered with industry leaders and the local Maroon Fund collective to lead among EKU’s peers in this space.
Nicholls Athletics garnered unprecedented accolades and experienced a drastic rise under Roan's leadership. Most importantly, student-athletes at Nicholls set school records for grade-point-average for three straight academic years while experiencing high Academic Progress Rate and Graduation Success Rate scores. In the fall of 2019, Nicholls surpassed a 3.0 all-department grade-point-average (GPA) for the first time on record. Both the men's and women's basketball teams, as well as the football and softball teams, either won conference championships or made it to NCAA Championships under Roan's leadership. The women's basketball team made it to the first round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history in 2018. The football team hosted playoff games three years in a row and won back-to-back Southland Conference Championships. The men’s golf team also earned an individual conference title in the spring of 2017.
Following the 2017-18 academic year, Nicholls posted its highest Directors’ Cup finish in 20 years. Roan also helped successfully host the annual Manning Passing Academy as a liaison each summer and was a part of the Division I Football Championship Committee during the 2019 season.
During his time at Nicholls, Roan modernized the athletics organizational structure with a focus on gender equity, operational integrity, student-athlete success and welfare, resource creation, and fan engagement. He oversaw the addition of beach volleyball, as well as men’s indoor and outdoor track and field, to the Nicholls sports portfolio during 2018-19 academic year. His hire of an associate athletics director allowed Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) responsibilities to be shifted from a coach to a full-time staff member, and he brought women’s basketball and softball up to the maximum allowable number of coaches. He also added positions in tennis, athletic training, sports performance, cross country/track and field, and in mental health and life skills.
Roan successfully led the searches for head coaches in men’s and women’s cross country/track and field, volleyball, men’s basketball, and soccer. Even more, Roan was also responsible for signing head football coach Tim Rebowe to an extension following the program’s 2017 season, which resulted in the team’s first-ever home playoff game. Roan’s ability to collaborate with others on campus was evident in the creation of the Student-Athlete Academic Success Program, which helped spark academic improvement.
Nicholls also achieved at record levels on the external side. Roan secured significant capital gifts and partnerships for facility upgrades, including the single largest gift in the institution’s 70-year history of $2.52 million to help fund construction of a 20,000 square foot football operations facility and covered practice facility. Additional gifts and partnerships allowed the department to install new synthetic surfaces for football and baseball, a video board for football, perform a complete weight room renovation, construct a nutrition center, enhance the basketball/volleyball arena, purchase a new golf van, and completely rebuild the softball facility, including all-new bleachers, dugouts, synthetic surface and lights among other improvements. Additionally, he managed improvements to the tennis complex and additional improvements to the baseball facility.
In addition to these capital gifts and improvements, Roan’s tenure also saw a 26 percent increase in annual fund revenue, over the baseline from when he arrived, to help support the scholarship and operational budgets of the 17 programs. Football season ticket revenue grew 33 percent in 2017 and another 35 percent in 2018. Basketball season ticket revenue grew by 27 percent. Tailgating and parking revenue combined increased 194 percent, concessions revenue increased 82 percent, and licensing revenue went up 63 percent during his tenure.
Roan ensured Nicholls Athletics maintained a strong presence in the Thibodaux community. He helped developed the #ColonelsInTheCommunity outreach program and worked closely with Special Olympics Louisiana on sport-specific clinics. He supported the creation and hosting of the Student-Athlete Institute of Leadership (SAIL) on campus. Roan aided in the creation of Knowing Nicholls, an in-studio show and brand designed to highlight both athletics and university success. He also started the Colonel Fan Focus Group to gather feedback from a diverse fan base and implement changes designed to improve the comprehensive fan experience. This outreach led to more than 40 fan experience improvements.
In his role as deputy athletics director at EKU in 2015 and 2016, Roan served as the sport administrator for football and women’s basketball, and oversaw all external operations (communications, development, marketing and ticket operations), administration and legal matters.
From July 2012 to September 2013, Roan served in a variety of roles at Southern Utah University, including president’s council fellow and deputy director of athletics. He was a football administration assistant and academic tutor/mentor at the University of Kentucky from January 2011 to June 2012. In the fall of 2010 Roan served as a teaching assistant at the University of Dayton School of Law. During the 2008-09 academic year he was the offensive line coach at Hargrave Military Academy.
Roan earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky School of Law in 2012. A transfer from Virginia Tech, he graduated summa cum laude with a political science degree from Southern Utah University in 2007 following a standout football career that included three all-conference selections.
Roan and his wife, Mallory, have two daughters, Gattlyn and Radley; and two sons, Catcher and Shepard.
What Others Are Saying About Matt Roan …
“Matt is uniquely qualified. He has had success as a sitting athletics director but has also held different roles in higher education, so he views the landscape through several lenses. He has led campus-wide strategic planning processes and has experience developing policy. He has worked closely with faculty on different projects, which is experience that is very important to me. He has led successful fundraising initiatives which includes building partnerships with businesses in the community where he served."
Betina Gardner, EKU Vice President of Development and Alumni Engagement and search committee chair
“This is an extremely important hire for EKU, and our director of athletics search committee, which was composed of faculty, staff and alumni who spent countless hours reviewing materials from more than 70 candidates. We were pleased to have many qualified candidates, and Matt Roan stood out. I am confident Matt will be committed to partnering with our faculty, staff, students, student-athletes and community as a steward of our athletics program. He will strive to win on the field and the court while continuing to push for improved academic success for student-athletes.”
Laura Babbage, EKU Regent and search committee member
“Matt has lived the life of a student-athlete and has had great academic success, which is something we found compelling in looking at many candidates. His previous experience in the OVC and most recent experience as a director of athletics in the Southland Conference were also major factors in bringing Matt back to EKU.”
Heather Howell, EKU alumnus and former volleyball player and search committee member
“I'm so excited for Matt and his family to get back home to EKU. Matt provides such a unique mentality towards the best fit and synergy of intercollegiate athletics on a campus of higher education. I've often leaned on him for that perspective, and I know he'll bring great initiative to that end for EKU athletics.”
Graham Neff, Deputy Director of Athletics – Clemson University
“EKU made a tremendous hire in Matt Roan, whom I consider a friend and respected colleague. I have enjoyed watching his success at Nicholls State where he has instilled a winning culture throughout the department. He is a proven leader known for being smart, ethical and hard-working. I am excited to continue to watch his leadership and know he will help build on the proud tradition at EKU.”
Wren Baker, Vice President, Director of Athletics – University of North Texas
“What a terrific hire for EKU, in selecting Matt Roan as its director of athletics. Matt is an extraordinary leader and administrator who cares deeply about making an impact on the lives of student-athletes. Matt and his family will be a tremendous addition to the Commonwealth, and I have no doubt he will lead EKU to new heights.”
Ryan Ivey, Director of Athletics – Stephen F. Austin University
