Purdue trustees approve contract extension for Bobinski as vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University trustees on Friday (Oct. 6) approved a contract extension for Mike Bobinski, vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics, through June 30, 2028.

Bobinski was named the ninth full-time athletics director in Purdue history Aug. 9, 2016, and under his leadership the Boilermakers have become a broad-based force athletically while sustaining their academic excellence — spurring renewed interest among alumni, donors, fans and media.

“Purdue is fortunate to have someone with the experience and vision of Mike Bobinski as our athletics director during a period of rapid and complex changes in the national scene of college athletics,” Purdue President Mung Chiang said. “Our student-athletes are champions academically and athletically because of Mike’s leadership that funnels through his administrators and coaches. He is America’s best AD, and we are glad he will continue to be a Boilermaker.”

Academically, Purdue student-athletes have regularly maintained better than a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average while performing equal to or better than the overall student body. The NCAA Graduation Success Rate stands at 88%. The department set a record with 265 Academic All-Big Ten honorees during the 2021-22 school year.

Men’s basketball has won three Big Ten Conference regular-season championships during Bobinski’s tenure (2017, 2019 and 2023) — plus the 2023 Big Ten Tournament — pushing its conference-leading total to 25 all-time. The program achieved its first-ever No. 1 national ranking during the 2021-22 season and is on a run of eight straight NCAA Tournament appearances, with a top-four seed in each of the last six tournaments.

Football has posted two bowl game victories (2017 Foster Farms and 2021 Music City) and won its first-ever Big Ten West Division championship in 2022.

Volleyball reached the NCAA Regional finals in 2020 and 2021, while the resurgent women’s basketball program earned its first NCAA Tournament appearance in six years in 2023. Women’s outdoor track and field won the 2017 Big Ten championship.

Fans have responded to the Boilermakers’ success. Ross-Ade Stadium football crowds have surged, with an average home attendance of 57,129 last season after a 34,451 average in 2016. Student football season tickets have sold out for the past five seasons. Men’s basketball enters the 2023-24 season with a string of 57 consecutive sellouts in Mackey Arena, dating to 2019.

Purdue Athletics saw a record-breaking $83 million raised by the John Purdue Club in 2022, while the growth of the annual fund has increased from $6.75 million in 2018 to a record-setting $13.5 million in 2023.

More than $100 million in facility upgrades, renovations and additions have been completed during Bobinski’s tenure.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.