Northwestern hiring Villanova’s Mark Jackson for its AD opening

Villanova athletic director Mark Jackson is leaving the school and heading to the Big Ten, a source confirmed to The Inquirer on Thursday morning.

Jackson will be the new athletic director at Northwestern. The schools officially announced the hiring Thursday morning after ESPN and NBC Sports first reported the move.

Jackson starts in his new role Sept. 1, according to a Northwestern press release, and will split time “between Evanston and suburban Philadelphia in September as he wraps up remaining responsibilities at Villanova.”

Villanova will soon name an interim AD and “map out a plan for a national search to fill the position,” Rev. Peter Donohue, Villanova’s president, said in a message to the Villanova community.

Jackson’s name popped up Tuesday, when the Chicago Sun-Times named him as one of three finalists for the job. The other two, according to the Sun-Times, were current Pittsburgh AD Heather Lyke and Washington Commanders executive Jason Wright, who played football at the Big Ten school in the early 2000s.

Jackson, a Massachusetts native, was hired by Villanova in 2015. The Villanova men’s basketball team won two national championships (2016, 2018) during his time leading the athletics department.

Jackson’s legacy at Villanova includes those titles, as well as spearheading capital projects and increasing donor support — most notably the $65 million renovation of Finneran Pavilion, Villanova’s campus home for men’s and women’s basketball.

Other projects Jackson was involved with include helping secure a permanent home for the Villanova rowing program on the Schuylkill River; the $18 million Andrew J. Talley Athletic Center, home to the school’s football program and sports medicine operations; a $4 million renovation project at the Davis Center, which houses basketball practice facilities and a fitness center for students; as well as locker room and facility upgrades for other Villanova athletic programs.

Jackson in 2020 was named the Under Armour AD of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics for “his commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, the university campus and its surrounding community.”

» READ MORE: ‘We have the right guy in place’: Villanova is committed to coach Kyle Neptune

He also recently was appointed to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, replacing former Butler AD Barry Collier, who retired in April.

Jackson is no stranger to big-time football. He joined Villanova after holding a senior role at Southern Cal, where he worked closely with the football program and oversaw more than $125 million in capital projects, including the renovation of the Los Angeles Coliseum. Before USC, Jackson also had a short stint as a senior athletic administrator at Syracuse.

“Northwestern University is world-class in all of its endeavors and its mission, values and pursuit of excellence in academics and athletics are not only aligned with my beliefs and approach but are a model for intercollegiate athletics,” Jackson said in a press release.

Jackson, who played football at Colby College in Maine, also brings NFL experience to Northwestern, having worked with the then-Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots. He was the director of football development with the Raiders 2007 to 2008 and was a coaching assistant with New England for three seasons from 1998 to 2000.

Jackson succeeded Vince Nicastro, who was Villanova’s AD from 2000 to 2015. The basketball program already was humming under former coach Jay Wright when Jackson arrived. Following Wright’s surprising retirement in 2022, Jackson hired former Wright assistant Kyle Neptune, who had left Villanova to become the head coach at Fordham one year earlier. The Wildcats have not made the NCAA Tournament in each of Neptune’s first two seasons — the first time they’ve gone consecutive seasons without dancing since 2004.

Jackson’s departure comes at a fascinating time in college athletics. It’s unclear where Villanova and Big East basketball fit in the rapidly changing landscape that seems focused on football first. Rumors are swirling about the potential departure of UConn, which has won the last two men’s basketball national titles, for the Big 12. Villanova’s next AD will be charged with helping the university and the conference navigate the new world.

“We have strong momentum to carry us into a new era of intercollegiate athletics, one that continues to evolve,” Donohue said. “I am confident that Villanova Athletics will continue to thrive and do its part to lift up our university.”