Maryland's next athletic director will reportedly come from a land foreign to college athletics—the land of Major League Baseball.
The Terrapins plan to hire Atlanta Braves senior vice president for business strategy Jim Smith as their next athletic director, according to a Thursday morning report from Pete Thamel of ESPN.
Smith has served in that role since 2020, and will replace Damon Evans—who left for SMU in March amid considerable upheaval in Maryland's athletic department. Then-Terrapins men's basketball coach Kevin Willard spent much of the NCAA tournament obliquely flirting with Villanova, a school he quickly left for after Maryland's elimination.
In addition to his MLB experience, Smith has worked for the Atlanta Falcons, Columbus Crew and Ohio State. He was the general manager for several solid Crew teams in the early 2000s, and worked for the Buckeyes' formidable marketing apparatus.
The Terrapins' first major sporting event of the 2026 academic year will take place Aug. 30, when they host Florida Atlantic on the gridiron.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Maryland Turns to MLB Ranks for Its Next Athletic Director.
