Across the ever-changing world of collegiate sports, university alignment from the president on down is viewed as paramount to any successful program.
Following a saga that began with the sudden removal of former University of Hawai‘i athletics director Craig Angelos on Nov. 19, 2024, the new leadership in place in Mānoa believes it has the alignment it's been seeking for over half a year.
Angelos was the pick for former UH president David Lassner on May 12, 2023, then was officially voted in by the Board of Regents six days later. Lassner retired at the end of 2024, but not before removing Angelos from the position. Lois Manin had served as the acting UH-Mānoa athletics director since Dec. 2, 2024.
Since Wendy Hensel began her tenure as the new University of Hawai‘i president on Jan. 1, the athletics director search was a subject she was asked frequently about publicly. In turn, Hensel continued to provide updates in her first months on the job, originally stating that the new hire could be in place by August, if not sooner.
On Monday, Matt Elliott was unanimously approved by the Board of Regents as UH-Mānoa's new athletics director, confirming the choice Hensel publicly announced on June 5. His first official day is set for June 30.
"We have to be in alignment for it to be a success, especially when every part is moving, not just for collegiate athletics, but for higher education at this moment. And so Matt and I talked, for example, [Monday] morning, about having him be part of the leadership team, not just the leader of athletics, so that he can be part of those conversations, and we can work across the university to really elevate both academics and athletics synergistically," Hensel said.
"And so, I'm really excited about that. I've never been the person or leader that didn't understand the value of athletics to the university. It brings people to the front door. It gets them excited. It helps the engagement. I love it. I think you've seen me out there cheering for every sport that I can possibly attend, and I'm excited to keep doing with that."
Added Elliott, "[Hensel] has said from day one that she's looking for somebody to be her partner, I think the same way as a teammate, to be able to navigate this space together. You need alignment between your president and your athletics director, and then that brings in all the other constituents as well, right? Your regents, your governor, your mayor, your legislators, all those folks getting on the same page. But it certainly starts with her cabinet and the athletics director being on that same page."
During the search process, Hensel stressed the importance of having an athletics director with a true contract rather than an at-will agreement like Angelos had. Elliott's first day on the job will mark the first day of a five-year contract. His annual salary will be around $425,000.
Even after the hire was made official, Hensel says she found herself increasingly impressed by Elliott.
"Matt is the full package. I've been teasing him that his nickname now is unicorn, after the stories you all have published, but I think there's a lot of truth to that," Hensel said. "It's hard to find somebody who is both a strategic thought leader and deeply steeped in athletics and great with students and focusing on the student-athlete."
Elliott, 48, comes to UH with 13 years of experience as an administrator in UCLA's athletic department, where he is credited in helping the Bruins move from an unstable Pac-12 Conference to the Big Ten Conference, one of the top conferences in collegiate sports.
Elliott recalls hearing from student-athletes at UCLA that they wanted more resources in a bevy of areas: Nutrition, mental health, academic support and travel.
"All of that costs money, and the opportunity to go to the Big Ten represented a way to create some financial security, to create those resources, to be able to do those things, because you want to compete," he recalled.
Along with USC, UCLA entered the Big Ten as fully vested members of the conference, while another pair of Pac-12 transplants in Oregon and Washington will receive half-shares until 2030. According to USA Today, the Big Ten pulled in $928 million in revenue in 2024.
As it relates to his new gig, Hawai‘i is about to be a part of the next wave of college realignment, jumping from the Big West Conference to the Mountain West Conference as full-time members in the summer of 2026.
"There's a 100% parallel situation were it carries over right now, whether it's the revenue sharing piece or whether it's moving to the Mountain West, we're going to do the same thing," Elliott said. "We're going to get ourselves ready so that we can make this transition and be there, that we can be successful. We're winning conference championships right now. We're competing for national championships.
"None of that should change because we're going into a new conference, and we should be the standard in that conference. That's our job. Our job is to be the best school we can be in the Mountain West and whoever we're competing against."
An independent audit at a Board of Regents meeting in December 2024 revealed that the UH athletics department had expenses of $59,858,160 and revenue of $57,738,306 from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. Meanwhile, UCLA's athletic department had $179.89 million in operating expenses in 2024, per the Los Angeles Times.
How did Elliott respond when asked about the difference between UCLA and UH in terms of financial resources available?
"I just think it's all relative, right? We want to be the best possible school," Elliott said. "We want to excel at the highest level. ... I think you just look at what is your space. How do you use those resources the most effectively? A lot of the work that I want us to do over the course of the next year is, what does it mean to compete? Where are you doing in football? What does it mean to compete in basketball or baseball, or whatever the sport is at that Mountain West level? What are our peers doing? How are they investing in their student athletes? And that's the work, right?
"If you can get yourself ready by understanding the background, then you put together your plan, and at the end of the day, you make it. You make do with what your resources are. But it's also my job as an athletic director to go out and grow that pool, right? I have to go out and I have to raise money, and our staff has to go out and raise money. We have to take advantage of corporate sponsorships. We have to sell tickets. All of those things can add to our budget. And then tell our story again, to this community, to our legislature, to our entire administration, our government, to say this is what you're investing in. This is why it's so important, because this place is everybody's team, right? If we can be successful, then everybody's successful, and everybody's a part of that.
"So, that's the job. That's what we have to do. And we do it right now. We start right away."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
