In a publicly published agenda for their meeting on June 19 through the 21st, the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) revealed that new Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini has been signed to a 3-year contract beginning at a base salary of $650K per year. This ABOR meeting will serve as the formal stamp of approval for this hire.
The contract details also revealed that Rossini's annual salary will increase by $50K each of the next two years. The contract also calls for a retention bonus of $250,000 if Rossini is still employed as athletic director through June 30, 2027.
There are several bonuses written into this contract. They range from $25,000 if ASU's academic progress rate and graduation rate are in the top three in the Big 12 conference to $50,000 if the Sun Devils do qualify for a ball game and top at 125,000 for a national championship appearance in football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, and softball.
In that ABOR meeting, ASU will also ask for a one-year contract extension for head football coach Kenny Dillingham, who will run through the 2028 season. In the justification for that extension, Arizona State noted that in Dillingham's first year as the Sun Devil's head coach, 4600 new season tickets were sold for the 2023 season, contributing to the highest total since 2017 when the reinvention of the football stadium took place. This past spring semester also resulted in an all-time high in team GPA of 2.96.
Full ABOR's agenda for this meeting can be found here
Rossini, 44, whose hire was announced by the school on May 23, graduated cum laude from ASU’s School of Business with an undergraduate degree and later earned his MBA from the school. The Mobile, Ala., native began his sports administration career working for five years as ASU's Director of Baseball Operations, where he was involved in two College World Series teams, two Pac-10 championships, and recruiting five top-five signing classes.
He went on to spend 13 years with the Arizona Diamondbacks as Vice President of Special Projects and Fan Experience. He was responsible for several departments and revenue from ticketing, corporate partnerships, special events, food and beverage, and merchandise. In addition, Rossini oversaw the club's fan experience, special events, alumni outreach, branding, and sustainability efforts.
Rossini also led over $300 million in capital projects during his time in MLB. He oversaw the design, construction, ticket sales, and marketing of Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. The complex was a finalist for Sports Facility of the Year from Sports Business Journal and has received over 40 "best of" awards, and has led baseball in total and average attendance each season since opening in 2011. He was also responsible for the planning and design of the D-backs' nearly completed Player Development and Education Academy in the Dominican Republic.
He joined Sun Devil Athletics in March 2021 as Senior Associate Athletics Director and was promoted in Fall 2023 to Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director and Chief Business Officer. As a member of President Michael Crow's University Council, University Management Team, and the Athletic Department’s Senior Leadership Team, Rossini is charged with the growth of Sun Devil Athletics' external departments, such as driving new ticket sales, corporate partnerships, philanthropic contributions, and an increased focus on NIL, fan experience, and letter winner outreach. He led the athletic department's efforts to secure a 15-year naming rights partnership of Mountain America Stadium and a 10-year extension to the naming rights of Desert Financial Arena.
“The ability to lead the athletics department at my alma mater is a responsibility that I am enormously proud to take on,” said Rossini. “I am so thankful for the many opportunities in my life that were created through ASU, and I have much to repay as a result.
“Our entire athletics department will work relentlessly to support our student-athletes and coaches as we compete at the highest level. We will build and maintain strong relationships with the entire ASU community, including our fans, letterwinners, alumni, partners and donors, while celebrating the spirit, pride and tradition that is unique to ASU.”
Rossini also served as a sports administrator for baseball, wrestling, hockey, and volleyball. ASU wrestling won the 2022 and 2024 Pac-12 championships and finished fourth at the 2022 NCAA Championships. It placed seventh in the NCAA in 2023 and sixth in 2024.
He also served on the search committee that hired head baseball coach Willie Bloomquist in 2021 and head volleyball coach JJ Van Niel in 2022, who was named last season’s Pac-12 Coach of the Year in his first season at the helm of the program. Sun Devil volleyball made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015 and finished the regular season 26-6, which is the best record this century in Tempe and the third-highest win total in program history.
ASU's senior vice president for educational outreach and student services, Jim Rund, has been serving as interim athletic director since former athletic director Ray Anderson's resignation last November. Anderson, who currently serves as a Professor of Practice in ASU's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, is still retaining his annual salary of $950K despite not being part of the athletic department.
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