On Feb. 29, 2024, in the Club Level of the Davison Athletics Complex, Louisiana Tech University president Dr. Jim Henderson introduced Ryan Ivey as the next Vice President and Director of Athletics.  Since that day, Ivey has established himself as a dynamic and forward-thinking leader in college athletics, steering LA Tech through a period of transformative growth, competitive success, and strategic realignment.

In the 2024-25 athletic season alone, Ivey oversaw a department that achieved remarkable milestones both on and off the field.  Six teams and/or individuals advanced to postseason competition, and LA Tech captured six Conference USA superlative awards while producing 44 All-CUSA selections.  The department also celebrated its highest-ever cumulative GPA on record at 3.267, with 51 student-athletes earning degrees and more than 220 student-athletes recognized on the CUSA Commissioner’s Honor Roll this past academic year.

Committed to purpose-driven leadership, Ivey introduced a new departmental vision -- "Serving people on a purpose-driven path to advance the Louisiana Tech Athletics brand."

This vision is underpinned by five core CHAMP Values — Connection, Charge, Character, Community, and Competition — which now guide the department’s culture, performance, and daily operations.

With the approval of the House vs NCAA landmark case and the rapidly evolving landscape of college athletics, Ivey has taken proactive steps to position Louisiana Tech for long-term success.  LA Tech Athletics announced an expansion of its philanthropic initiatives and launched new fan and donor engagement programs. As part of this forward-thinking approach, the CHAMP fund was created to better align with the modern collegiate athletics enterprise and to make it easier to be a fan, donor, business partner, and student-athlete.

Under Ivey’s leadership, the athletics department has advanced on multiple other fronts. Major facility enhancements included:

• The groundbreaking of the Origin Bank Center for Student-Athlete Success, a transformational academic hub;

• Renovations to the men's basketball locker room, sports medicine facility, and current academic center;

• Installation of a new football video board and technology updates across the Athletics Village;

• A refreshed LA Tech Tennis Complex, including resurfaced courts and new branding elements.

Ivey also spearheaded the launch of LA Tech Live, a new in-house broadcast and digital content platform, which featured live coverage of 43 home events and a suite of original programming.  Meanwhile, fundraising efforts reached record levels, with more than $8.2 million raised, including nearly $1 million in LTAC-specific giving.

Other major advances within the department included a partnership with Paciolan, the leading mobile ticketing, marketing, and fundraising solutions provider for college athletics, to help enhance the fan experience for all Bulldog and Lady Techster athletic events as well as the launch of Blue Bloods, the official student spirit organization designed to ignite school pride, elevate the game day experience, and create a unifying identity fro students across campus.

Ivey came to Ruston with more than 18+ years of experience in intercollegiate athletics with the past 11 as an athletics director at Stephen F. Austin, Austin Peay, and Texas A&M-Commerce.

He spent more than five years in Nacogdoches, Texas at SFA, leading the department through a conference transition from the Southland Conference to the Western Athletic Conference, raising private support that included the launch of the Purple Lights Fund that helped secure the four largest single gifts in the department’s history, and increasing ticket sales by 189 percent.
 
He also helped complete more than $30 million in facility improvements including the Loddie Naymola Basketball Performance Center, a 42,000-square foot building that houses offices, locker rooms, weight room, training room, and practice courts for the SFA basketball programs.  Other construction improvements included a baseball indoor pitching facility, beach volleyball competition facility, indoor golf practice facility, soccer locker room renovations, and more.
 
Under his leadership, the Lumberjacks celebrated 18 conference championships, three NCAA Tournament appearances, and the 2019 Bowling National Championship won by the Ladyjacks after going a perfect 4-0, defeating top-ranked Vanderbilt in the title match.
 
Prior to joining SFA, Ivey spent three years (2015-18) at Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee, overseeing the department of athletics and its 16 sponsored sports.  While at the helm of the Governors, he helped raise $6.5 million in gifts which were funneled into facility improvements and the athletic departments budget on top of increase football and basketball ticket revenue a combined 39 percent.
 
While at Austin Peay, the Governors posted several accomplishments on the court/field including two postseason appearances by men’s basketball in 2016 and 2018, an eight-win season by football in 2017 that tied the program record for single-season victories reached some 40 years prior in 1977, and a volleyball program that claimed both the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles.
 
His first Director of Athletics position came at NCAA Division II Texas A&M-Commerce.  During his two-year stint with the Lions, the athletic programs experienced new heights by winning six team Lone Star Conference championships in the 2014-15 season, the most ever in Lion Athletics history.
 
In particular, the football program secured back-to-back winning seasons and postseason appearances for the first time since 1990, seeing a 160 percent increase in attendance and a record number of season tickets sold.
 
Along the way, he helped drive in more than $2.8 million in facility enhancements, including a $1.4 million softball field that saw a first-year program in 2015 finish with a winning record and gain a spot in the Lone Star Conference tournament.  He also created the Lions Athletic Club, the fundraising arm of Texas A&M-Commerce Athletics.
 
Ivey’s first work experience in the state of Louisiana came at McNeese where he assumed the role of assistant athletic director for internal affairs with his efforts primarily focused on growing corporate sponsorship revenue for the Cowboys and Cowgirls.
 
He spent six years in Lake Charles, the last three of which were as associate director of athletics where he continued his work in revenue generation while overseeing operations for all 16 of the institution’s athletic programs.
 
Under his guidance, corporate sponsorship yield over $750,000 before accepting his first athletic director position at Texas A&M-Commerce. 
 
Prior to breaking into athletic administration, Ivey served as the director of basketball operations for the Memphis women’s basketball team from 2005-07, which followed a short stint as an athletics marketing coordinator at the University of South Dakota. 
 
Following his graduation from Memphis in 2004, Ivey secured a position with the Memphis Redbirds – the triple-A affiliate of the MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals – as a stadium operations assistant.
 
A student-athlete at Memphis, Ivey suited up for the Tigers’ football team for four years as the squad’s punter and holder.  Most notable, Ivey held or Lou Groza finalist and eventual three-time Super Bowl champion Stephen Gostkowski. 
 
Ivey earned both his bachelor’s (sports management, 2004) and master’s (sports and leisure commerce, 2010) from the University of Memphis.
 
Ivey is married to the former Kelley Holt from Fayetteville, Tennessee.  The couple has two sons – Jett and Ace.