Utah State administrators have announced the university officially has a new athletic director to guide Aggie sports into the future.
Diana Sabau was named as USU’s new vice president and director of athletics on Monday. Sabau was recruited to the university by new USU President Elizabeth Cantwell, according to a university news release.
Brian Steed — USU’s executive director for the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air — chaired the search committee that picked Sabau.
“Diana is extraordinarily excited to get to work at Utah State University," Steed told Utah Public Radio. "She spent some time on campus driving around and interacting with students as well as folks, and she's just really excited to get here and get to work.”
Sabau comes to Logan from the Big Ten, where she was most recently the deputy commissioner and chief sports officer for the conference. Prior to that, she worked as the senior deputy athletics director at Ohio State University, where she oversaw football, women’s ice hockey and other programs.
Sabau will take the reins from Jerry Bovee, who’s been USU’s interim athletic director since John Hartwell, the previous AD, announced he was stepping down last November. Hartwell is now the AD at the University of Louisiana Monroe, and Bovee is set to remain in the Utah State athletic department.
Sabau arrives during an interesting time for the Mountain West Conference, as conference realignment is a constant issue and only four teams remain in the nearby and beleaguered PAC-12. Combine that with the shifting rules of name, image and likeness deals, the transfer portal and other issues, Steed said the job will be a daily challenge. But he says Sabau is the right person for the job.
“We were looking for someone that was able to deal on all those different levels, and charge the path for Utah State University, and bring us to the next level of intercollegiate sports," Steed said.
Sabau will start at USU on Aug. 21.
