Mizzou Splits Girton’s Super-Job as Maggard Comes Home

Missouri has Bryan Maggard in the deputy athletic director and chief operating officer chair, the job Marcy Girton left when she retired in mid-August. Angie Jabir begins at Mizzou on Oct. 5 as deputy athletic director for Olympic sport leadership and senior woman administrator, the last open seat in a three-deputy chart Director of Athletics Laird Veatch started building on July 21, 2026.

Maggard runs internal operations and men’s basketball. He does not inherit Girton’s football, softball, NIL, or SWA work. Veatch split that combined job instead of handing it to one person.

Maggard Comes Home as COO, Not Athletic Director

Veatch announced a series of leadership changes that brought Maggard back from Lafayette, where he had been athletics director since 2017 and vice president for intercollegiate athletics since 2021. Maggard’s current Mizzou staff bio lists him in the COO job and as sport administrator for men’s basketball.

He spent 22 years at Missouri before that, most recently as executive associate athletics director, and the department credits him with a role in the move into the Southeastern Conference. The title he took in July is a deputy chair at an SEC school, not another AD job. He said the pull was family as much as the work.

We always knew it would take something extremely special for us to leave this place we called home for nearly a decade. With the birth of our granddaughter and a tremendous opportunity provided by Mizzou, we simply could not pass up the chance to return close to family.

Bryan Maggard, in his Louisiana farewell

The university’s own statement framed the same choice as a chance to return close to family. National copy still treats “Louisiana” as one blob; the job he left was at Lafayette, a Sun Belt program that had just lived through staff cuts and a purchasing-card audit.

Mizzou Athletics announced several leadership transitions today.

🏛️ We thank Deputy AD Marcy Girton for an outstanding career as she prepares to retire in August.

🐯 We welcome Bryan Maggard back to Columbia as Deputy AD/Chief Operating Officer alongside additional leadership… pic.twitter.com/5j5y4QGLfY

— Mizzou Athletics (@MizzouAthletics) July 21, 2026

Veatch called Maggard “an outstanding addition to our Senior Leadership Team” and said he “knows what it takes to compete for championships.” Maggard, in the Mizzou release, said he was “honored and humbled to return” and pointed at “the momentum surrounding Mizzou Athletics.”

MAGGARD’S LOUISIANA LEDGER

• Sun Belt titles: Mizzou’s staff bio credits him with 20 conference championships in nine years, plus 23 NCAA postseason trips.
• The 2021-22 year: Louisiana won Sun Belt titles in football, baseball, and softball and a football bowl game, the only program to do all four that athletics year.
• Money and brick: A record $30 million fundraising run, a $15 million gift, a $65 million Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium renovation, and a 10-year Learfield multimedia deal.
• Bowl streak: Eight straight football bowls, a list Louisiana’s newsroom put next to Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State.

President Ramesh Kolluru also cited five Sun Belt football championship-game appearances, two Sun Belt football titles, and six College Football Playoff rankings. Maggard hired Billy Napier and later Michael Desormeaux to run the football program.

The Portfolio Girton Takes Into Retirement

Girton joined Mizzou in May 2023 as senior associate athletic director for football administration and special projects, then rose to deputy athletic director, chief operating officer, and senior woman administrator. She oversaw NIL and revenue-sharing, served as sport administrator for football and softball, and filled the AD chair during the 2024 search.

University of Missouri President Mun Choi Girton as interim athletics director on Feb. 20, 2024, after Desiree Reed-Francois left for Arizona. Girton held that job until April 23, 2024. She had already been a COO at Auburn and South Carolina and a football sport administrator at Auburn and Texas A&M.

Football coach Eli Drinkwitz thanked her for “hard work, attention to detail and willingness to help us build the Mizzou football program.” Veatch said she had been “an invaluable member of our leadership team during one of the most transformational periods in college athletics.”

Girton put the arc at 43 years. “I am so appreciative of the incredible opportunity to have spent 43 years in collegiate athletics,” she said, and she singled out ending the run “as a Missouri Tiger.” Mid-August was the exit date. Maggard stayed in Lafayette about a month after the July 21 announcement to hand off the job.

The pieces she put down did not move as a set. Maggard got operations and men’s basketball. The SWA title and Olympic sports went into a new deputy job. Football sport administration was not listed on Maggard’s new sheet.

A Three-Deputy Chart Replaces One Combined Job

Mizzou’s senior staff directory now lists Maggard next to Eric Morrison, the deputy athletic director and chief of external relations who already held a deputy chair when Girton retired. Jabir is the third. Veatch said the department was “intentionally strengthening our sport leadership structure to better support our coaches and student-athletes.”

THE THREE DEPUTY CHAIRS

That is a different machine from the one Girton ran. One person no longer holds COO, SWA, football, softball, and the NIL file at the same time. The new Olympic deputy is also the Title IX and student-athlete welfare voice, which is why the search was national and why Veatch waited until mid-September to fill it.

Six Promotions Follow the COO Change

The July 21 release moved six people with Girton’s exit, a middle-management thicken rather than a second outside hire.

THE SIX INTERNAL MOVES

• Nick Grunenwald: Executive athletics director and senior counsel for athletics, reporting to University General Counsel Mark Menghini as the department’s internal lawyer.
• Katie Martinez: Associate athletics director for Olympic sport leadership, reporting to the new Olympic deputy and holding direct oversight of those programs.
• Michael Schroeder: Executive athletics director and chief brand officer.
• Dave Matter: Senior associate athletics director for strategic communications and creative media.
• Connor Jordan: Associate athletics director for strategic revenues.
• Josh Moore: Associate athletics director for marketing and sales.

Grunenwald and Schroeder sit on the senior leadership team with Maggard and Morrison. Martinez’s job only makes sense once Jabir is in the building; the Olympic file was the piece Veatch would not leave on Maggard’s desk.

Angie Jabir Starts Oct. 5 in the Olympic Seat

Jabir arrives from Stanford, where she was executive associate athletics director for sport administration and senior woman administrator after joining in 2024 during the Cardinal’s move into the Atlantic Coast Conference. Mizzou named her on Sept. 15. Her first day is Oct. 5.

She will sit on the senior leadership team, work with Olympic sport head coaches on recruiting, scheduling, budgeting, and student-athlete support, and hold the SWA brief Girton had, including student-athlete welfare, equity, and Title IX. Veatch said she has spent more than two decades as a coach and administrator and “understands what it takes to support coaches, develop people and build programs that can win championships at the highest level.”

Jabir said she wants to “get to know our programs, listen to our coaches and student-athletes and help turn that vision into sustained success.” Before Stanford she was senior associate AD and SWA at Siena from 2021 to 2024, where she sat on the NCAA Division I Council and the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee. Earlier stops included Lynn, Nova Southeastern, and Dayton, plus a start as a women’s basketball assistant.

Martinez reports to her. The Olympic coaches who used to share a deputy with football and the COO file now have a dedicated chair. That is the part of the July reorg that did not exist until September.

Louisiana Still Runs on an Interim Athletic Director

Kolluru named Trey Frazier, deputy athletics director and executive director of the Ragin’ Cajuns Athletic Foundation, as interim director the day Maggard’s move posted. Frazier joined Lafayette in October 2022 after fundraising jobs that included a stretch at Missouri. The university said a national search for the next vice president for intercollegiate athletics would begin in the coming months. Late September staff listings still called Frazier interim.

In a letter to Cajun fans, Frazier wrote, “Simply put, we are better because of Dr. Bryan Maggard.” Baseball coach Matt Deggs, speaking after the news broke, said he respected the choice and that family had reached the point where “that trumps everything else.” The AD-to-deputy step still cost Maggard a national seat.

The College Football Playoff Management Committee had put Maggard on the selection committee in March. On Aug. 4 it appointed Doug Gillin to the committee to replace him. Gillin is Appalachian State’s athletics director and, from 2012 to 2015, was a deputy AD at Missouri. The CFP treats the selection job as an AD’s chair. A COO title in Columbia did not keep it.

THE HANDOFF CALENDAR

1. March 2026: Maggard is appointed to the College Football Playoff selection committee while still Louisiana’s AD.
2. July 21, 2026: Missouri names Maggard deputy AD and COO; Girton’s mid-August retirement is set; six promotions post; a third deputy search opens.
3. Mid-August 2026: Girton retires; Maggard’s Lafayette handoff window closes.
4. August 4, 2026: The CFP names Gillin to Maggard’s committee seat.
5. September 15, 2026: Missouri names Jabir deputy AD for Olympic sport leadership and SWA.
6. October 5, 2026: Jabir’s first day in Columbia.

The other file Maggard left on the desk is a state audit that never named him and still landed on the department. A Louisiana Legislative Auditor review, described in a March 16, 2026 internal report, found a football recruiting employee had vendors recode alcohol and food as “room rentals” or “event deposits.” Nine line items totaling $5,974 from November 2024 through June 2025 were confirmed as misrepresented. Ten more transactions totaling $7,178, submitted by the employee’s supervisor from December 2021 through June 2024, were flagged as suspected.

The recruiter resigned Jan. 20, 2026. Troy Wingerter, then associate athletic director and chief of staff for football, left June 30 after being forced out over the audit allegations; he said the spending produced no personal gain and should have been billed through the university foundation rather than a LaCarte card. The auditor did not confirm he was the supervisor in the report.

Kolluru told 15th Judicial District Attorney Don Landry in an April letter that the athletics funds had been recouped and that the university considered the matter resolved. The auditor still faulted Lafayette for slow notice, as required by state law, of that case and two other incidents that were not athletics recruiting: $671 on a lost purchasing card and $70,245 in unauthorized bank activity, both later reimbursed. Those three incidents together were about $77,000. First Assistant District Attorney Fritz Welter said in early July that the case had been assigned to him and was under investigation.

Maggard’s name is not in those findings. The timing still sits next to his exit: the AD who oversaw the department through the audit took a deputy job in Columbia, and the fundraiser he left behind is still the interim. Jabir’s first day is Oct. 5. Lafayette has not posted a permanent replacement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Did Marcy Girton Work for Before Mizzou?

She spent seven years as chief operating officer at Auburn, where she also served as acting athletic director and helped lead searches for a women’s basketball coach and a senior woman administrator. She was deputy director of athletics at Texas A&M from 2012 to 2016 and COO at South Carolina from 2008 to 2012, then worked as a senior advisor for Collegiate Sports Associates and as an NIL consultant before Mizzou hired her in May 2023.

Was Bryan Maggard Named in Louisiana’s Funds Audit?

No. The Legislative Auditor’s file centers on a football recruiting employee who resigned Jan. 20, 2026, and on that employee’s supervisor, whose card was revoked. Maggard is not named in those findings. On June 30, 2026, the university adopted a written policy that requires staff who suspect a misappropriation to report it immediately to university police and general counsel.

Who Replaced Maggard on the College Football Playoff Committee?

Appalachian State athletics director Doug Gillin, named by the CFP Management Committee on Aug. 4, 2026. CFP executive director Rich Clark announced the appointment. Gillin is in his 12th year in Boone, served on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee from 2020 to 2023, and was Missouri’s deputy director of athletics from 2012 to 2015.

What Did Maggard Oversee in His First Stretch at Mizzou?

His current staff bio says the first 22-year run covered academics, athletic performance, sports medicine, equipment operations, athletic dining, sport and counseling psychology, and student-athlete development, plus a hand in the SEC transition. An older department bio also had him in football sport oversight, scheduling, facility design, and as an adjunct in Mizzou’s sport management program.