Get To Know Utah State’s New Athletic Director Diana Sabau

What to expect from the new Aggies AD 

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New era of Utah State athletics

Diana Sabau has been introduced as Utah State University’s new Athletics Director and she is ready to “create comprehensive excellence” in Logan. 

In an introductory press conference on August 10th, 2023, the world got its first glimpse of the new-look Aggie leadership team. Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell, Utah State University’s brand-new University President introduced Diana Sabau as the new Athletics Director.

Cantwell, the university’s 17th president, put her confidence in Sabau saying “Before I introduce Diana I want to say that in my mind she is the leader for this moment. There are many challenges that await her and that await us. All you have to do is look at what’s happening in conference realignment to know that we are at a very interesting moment in history… She has the skills, she has the experience… I’m really proud that who we are and what we represent as an Aggie Athletics community has attracted someone like Diana Sabau.”

Of her criteria during the search, Cantwell said “In particular (we) looked at what is going to take to elevate USU Athletics into the next realm. And that’s really where I know Diana and I are focused.”

Cantwell also gave some insight into the logistics search process, saying that the search committee, chaired by Brian Steed, Utah State Executive Director for the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land Water and Air, presented her with five finalists on the very day she was sworn in as president. Before the president’s remarks, Steed said “Going into this search I recognized that this would be a monumental task.

There is tremendous interest in Aggie Athletics here in the valley as well as across the nation and we knew there was going to be a lot of interest in this… the entire search committee was very impressed by the depth and experience of our pool of candidates and we attribute that, obviously, to the great reputation Aggie Athletics has throughout the nation and the strength of our school just generally… we were able to attract just an incredible talent, an impressive skill, and talented leader to join our Aggie family.”

Included in a university press release, is a congratulatory message from Gloria Nevarez, commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, who has also known Sabau for some time.

“Congratulations to President Cantwell and Utah State on recruiting Diana Sabau as their vice president and director of athletics,” Nevarez said. “She is an outstanding communicator, innovator, team player, and above all else the consummate servant leader. A terrific hire for USU and the Mountain West.”

When she took the floor, Sabau quickly outlined her vision for the future of Utah State athletics and affirmed her commitment to student-athletes, the community, and winning with integrity. 

“Our student-athletes will always be at the forefront of my decision-making because we are here for them and they are here to make our community proud… together we will graduate our student-athletes so that they will be successful in the career paths that they chose… Together, we will create comprehensive excellence through all that we do in athletics… Together we will give back to the community of Logan, to cache valley, and beyond… Together, we will win with integrity, through our core values, creating a source of pride for all students, fans, and those who live and are part of Aggie Nation.”

She also promised to make winning an integral part of the department’s ethos. “I am a competitor, so of course, we are going to invest in winning.”

As she prepared to close, she offered an optimistic and enthusiastic rally, “Utah State athletics has a strong foundation and I can’t wait to be a part of how we elevate that and show the world: we are Aggies. Let’s go! Go Aggies!”

Sabau has an impressive resume and comes from a strong administrative pedigree.

Prior to taking the job, Sabau was deputy commissioner and chief sports officer for Big Ten Conference. Sabau oversaw the administration of all 28 conference-sponsored sports and was tasked with keeping the Big Ten Conference focused on serving the health, safety, well-being, and academic achievement of the student-athletes.

Sabau’s responsibilities included managing affiliate memberships, competition, scheduling, championships, sportsmanship, officiating, and awards and she had departmental oversight of football administration, basketball administration, hockey administration, Olympic sports administration, and officiating administration.

She also served as a key conference liaison to all the Big Ten coaching groups and administrators, including the Administrator’s Council, Senior Woman Administrators, ADs, bowl partners, coach’s groups, Sports Management Committee, and the NCAA.

She managed the Gender Equity Action Plan for the conference and helped transform the Big Ten through forming sustainable, equitable, and equal opportunities for our student-athletes.

Before she was at the Big Ten Conference, Sabau worked for Ohio State University and served as senior deputy athletic director. The Buckeyes boast one of the most expansive, decorated, and comprehensive athletics programs in the nation. Ohio State has 36 fully funded varsity sports and more than 1,000 student-athletes. There, she served under Gene Smith, who is often cited as one of the most prolific athletic directors in history. Smith, a formidable leader and mentor, won the 2010 Carl Maddox Sports Management Award and the 2016 James J. Corbett Memorial Award. He was also identified as one of Black Enterprise’s “50 most powerful African-Americans in sports” and was named Athletic Director of the Year by Sports Business Journal.

When asked about Smith in her introductory press conference at Utah State, Sabau has glowing remarks about her former AD and said she learned “that people are the most important thing in everything that we do” and went on to say “I also learned from Gene, enjoy the moment, have fun, celebrate your successes, and we’re going to do that because we have a strong foundation.”

During Smith’s tenure, Ohio State has dominated Big Ten Conference play, with 95 team and 305 individual conference championships. Nothing delights Smith more than seeing student-athletes proudly display their championship rings which will forever serve as a reminder of their Ohio State experience.

On the national stage, Ohio State teams have won 23 team and 89 individual national championships during Smith’s tenure, a mark of competitive excellence, and collected 1,285 All-America honors. By doing so, Ohio State has established itself as a perennial Top 5 contender in the Learfield Director’s Cup. 

As senior deputy director, Sabau was responsible for the department of athletics revenue generation and coordinated the overall The Ohio State University athletics brand messaging, strategic planning, maximizing partnerships for the student-athlete experience, tracking trends in technology for business advancement, and public relations. 

She brokered a multi-million-dollar partnership agreement with Nike and the university that the school called “unprecedented.” She managed partnerships with CBS Digital, Coca-Cola, Gatorade, Learfield, Levy Restaurants, Nike, and the Big Ten Network. She also managed the departments of ticket office, out-bound ticket sales, fan experience and promotions, marketing and social media, video services, as well as the OhioStateBuckeyes.com website. 

While at Ohio State Sabau also served as television liaison and as department liaison with The Ohio State University Office of the President, where she worked with its chief of staff and communications team to develop collaborative and wide-range messaging plans. 

Within her tenure at Ohio State, she served as sport administrator for football, women’s ice hockey, and the co-ed rifle and pistol programs.

During her four years as sport administrator for Ohio State football, the team won four consecutive Big Ten championships and participated in the college football playoffs.

Although the headline of her time is the success of the football team that she oversaw, the most impressive part might be her work in women’s ice hockey. As sport administrator, Sabau reinvented The Ohio State University women’s ice hockey program. 

In a move that Aggship called her hiring her “crowing achievement” at Ohio State, Sabau recruited and hired Nadine Muzerall, an assistant coach at the University Of Minnesota, to be the head coach of the Buckeyes. 

Muzerall was immediately successful. She was named coach of the year in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) twice while Sabau was the program administrator, first in 2018 and then in 2020. In 2018, the women’s ice hockey team received an at-large bid to the NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament and advanced to their first-ever NCAA Women’s Frozen Four.

Then, in 2020, the team achieved its best season ever, again advancing to the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four under Muszerall, and winning the team’s first-ever WCHA championship. Ass additional evidence of Sabau’s focus on “comprehensive excellence.” every single member of Muzurall’s team earned the OSU Scholar Athlete (grade-point average of 3.0+) distinction in both 2020 and 2021.

Sabau earned her bachelor’s degree from St. Bonaventure and a master’s in sports administration from Ohio University. She also attended Oxford University and Somerville College. The Big Ten staff directory also lists some impressive extracurriculars: 

“Sabau was a member of the executive team for the Columbus Local Organizing Committee that planned and hosted the 2018 Women’s NCAA Final Four. Chief among her responsibilities were ticket sales, budgeting, student-athlete engagement, and fan experience and promotions. 

Sabau is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and Women Leaders in College Sports (womenleadersincollegesports.org). Through participation in the McKinsey & Company McKinsey Institute professional development program, she holds certificates in enterprise agility, change leadership, centered leadership, and executive transitions.”

 Sabau will start on August 21st.

Story originally appeared on Mountain West Wire