By SUSAN JONES
Allen Greene, who has served senior deputy athletics director at the University of Tennessee since December 2023 and before that was director of athletics at Auburn University for nearly five years, will take over Nov. 1 as Pitt’s director of athletics, Chancellor Joan Gabel announced today.
Greene replaces Heather Lyke, who was fired in early September after seven years here. Gabel at that time said Pitt needed a “new vision and a new leader of our athletics department” as it enters “a new era in college athletics, one that seems to change by the day.”
He will initially be dividing his time between Pittsburgh and Knoxville as he fulfills any outstanding responsibilities at the University of Tennessee.
In making the announcement, Pitt said Greene has been “a lead figure in the management of name, image and likeness (NIL) programs at three separate Southeastern Conference (SEC) institutions.”
Some in local sports media (see stories in the Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review) previously cited a lack of a solid plan for raising money for NIL as one possible reason for Lyke getting fired.
“In Allen Greene, we have a proven national leader who exemplifies the Pitt way, and who has all of the experience and intangibles to elevate our athletics program in competition and in the classroom,” Gabel said in the announcement. “In my conversations with Allen and with many others who know him well, it is clear that he will lead us successfully into the new world of intercollegiate athletics.”
At Tennessee, Greene played an integral role in the athletics department’s more than 30% increase in annual revenue, the announcement said. Danny White, Tennessee’s director of athletics that Pitt selection of Greene was “a home run hire! Allen is one of the most innovative, genuine and competitive leaders we have in college athletics. We are sad to lose Allen and his family on Rocky Top, but look forward to seeing their transformative impact at Pitt!”
“I am tremendously grateful and honored to receive the opportunity from Chancellor Gabel to join the University of Pittsburgh, an institution and athletic tradition I’ve long admired,” Greene said in the announcement. “It was apparent from my very first conversation with Chancellor Gabel that Pitt has the highest of aspirations in every endeavor it undertakes. That’s tremendously energizing to me and a challenge I fully embrace.”
Prior to his tenure with the Volunteers, he served a year at the University of Mississippi as senior deputy athletics director for external relations and business development.
From 2018 and 2022, Greene was director of athletics at Auburn University, where his record of success included eight SEC championships and 47 programs achieving Top 25 finishes in national rankings.
Greene left Auburn just months before his contract was up for renewal. Sports Illustrated at the time called his tenure at Auburn “rocky,” but laid much of the blame on a program that “functions via dysfunction almost exclusively.” Former Notre Dame AD Kevin White, for whom Greene worked, called Auburn’s move “disturbing to say the very least” and said Greene was a “rockstar leader.”
During Greene’s tenure, the Auburn men’s basketball team earned the first No. 1 national ranking in program history and advanced to its first Final Four; the baseball team returned to the College World Series for the first time in 22 years; the equestrian team won two national championships; and student-athlete grade-point averages rose to a combined 3.25. Auburn Athletics also welcomed its four largest individual donations ever, and the Woltosz Football Performance Center — a $92 million football facility that stands as the largest athletics project in Auburn history — was constructed.
But he also fired football coach Gus Malzahn and made a controversial hire for his replacement — Boise State’s Bryan Harsin — and cut budgets across the board by 10%.
Prior to Auburn, Greene served the University at Buffalo as director of athletics from 2015 to 2018. His tenure was marked by four Buffalo teams advancing to their respective NCAA championships in a two-year span and Buffalo student-athletes earning grade-point averages of 3.0 or better for 11 consecutive semesters, with the football team earning its highest team GPA in program history.
He also was instrumental in significantly enhancing donor and corporate support for Buffalo Athletics and negotiated the department’s first multimedia rights agreement.
Greene was a three-year starter for the Notre Dame baseball team, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance in 2000. He was a ninth-round selection in the 1998 Major League Baseball draft by the New York Yankees and played three years in the organization’s minor league system. He later earned a master of business administration at Indiana University’s South Bend campus and worked for Notre Dame for seven years.
He has served on the executive committee of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and LEAD1 as 1st vice-chair.
He and his wife, Christy, have three children: daughters Rian and Seneca and son Samuel.
Jeff Capel, head coach of Pitt men’s basketball, who served on the athletic director search advisory committee, said, “Allen brings to Pitt an outstanding reputation as an innovative leader who is personally invested in the student-athletes and staff under his watch. His impressive administrative experience will be a tremendous asset not only for our athletics department but also the entire University. We greatly look forward to his arrival on campus.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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