What will Louisville AD Josh Heird address in his first 100 days? Follow the money

Josh Heird acted as Louisville’s interim athletic director for six months before having the tag removed Friday.

‘Interim’ was in name only as he was granted the same power and opportunity as he does now as the official full-time AD. During that time of limbo, Heird made an impression with boosting the football team’s recruiting resources, hiring a men’s basketball coach in Kenny Payne and giving contract extensions to Cardinals women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz and volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly.

With much going on at U of L, there’s still plenty of work to be done during Heird’s first few months as the official AD. Here are three things to consider during Josh Heird’s first 100 days as the full-time athletic director:

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Cardinals Stadium name

For almost three years, Louisville’s football stadium has been without a corporate partner for naming rights. The stadium opened as Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in 1998. Papa John’s was removed from the name in July 2018 after a leaked conference call revealed John Schnatter, the founder of the pizza company, had used a racial slur. Schnatter has contended he was quoting someone else during the call and has since sued his old company over the incident.

Since then, U of L has been working to find a new company to purchase naming rights. In August, prior to his departure, former Cardinals athletic director Vince Tyra said the university had completed interviews with companies, though he couldn’t put a timetable on when, specifically, an agreement with one would be reached.

With Tyra gone, the responsibility now falls on Heird to help find a new company to purchase naming rights for the Cardinals’ football stadium.

Related: John Schnatter speaks out, again, on his exit from Papa John's

Keeping up with NIL

The NCAA allowing student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness in July changed the landscape of college athletics. Most recently, that’s included the creation of collectives, which are founded by college boosters. While Louisville currently doesn’t have any collectives, the university has done its best to stay at the forefront of the ever-changing scope of NIL.

The Cardinals’ athletic department set up an NIL advisory board, partnered with branding company Opendorse to create ELEVATE, a program designed to help student-athletes with personal branding, in addition to bringing back Louisville alumni Zack McKay as the director of NIL services and engagement. Additionally, as an Adidas school, all student-athletes have an opportunity to become a brand ambassador for Adidas.

It will fall on Heird to facilitate further progress so Louisville can continue to attract student-athletes during recruiting.

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“It's everything, it's not just NIL,” Heird said. “I feel like you take a day off in college athletics right now and you're going to be behind at something. So, whether it's the NIL, the changing landscape around what college football is going to evolve into, if it does evolve. Is it governed by the NCAA? Is it not? We're going to try to stay focused on everything that's evolving right now in college athletics.”

Journey to financial stability

Louisville's financial wells haven't run dry, but they've certainly taken a hit over the last few years. A chunk of the athletic department's reserves were spent on buyouts for former head football coach Bobby Petrino and former head men's basketball coach Chris Mack in addition to an estimated $7 million settlement with former athletics director Tom Jurich. Petrino's buyout was $14 million, while Mack's $12 million buyout was agreed to be paid in installments over the next three fiscal years.

On top of that, former U of L athletics director Vince Tyra had taken out a $20 million line of credit from Republic Bank for working capital.

Hopeful future: Despite $9.9 million deficit and pandemic, AD Vince Tyra bullish on Louisville finances

The lingering effects of the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic also still loom with Louisville looking to move closer to financial stability. According to reports sent to the NCAA, the Cardinals' athletic department generated $101,110,217 in total operating revenues for the 2020-21 school year. Even with making significant cuts to the total operating expenses from the year prior, the school spent $109,320,333 for a deficit of $8,210,116.

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While Tyra expressed optimism in the Cardinals' financial status a year ago, it'll be up to Heird to ensure the program bounces back to become financially stable enough to generate more revenue. That'll include building up endowment funds. When asked about his comfortability with asking for money, Heird laid out an idea of how he would go about doing that.

"I think you provide opportunities and choices as to where donors should put their money," he said. "So you say, 'Hey, here's our priorities. NIL, that's a priority of ours. And here's some other priorities, whether it's a capital project, or academic funding, whatever it may be.' And at that point, people are gonna give to things that they think are important to them, things that they believe in.

"A lot of times, you're not asking for money. You're saying, 'Hey, this is what we need to be successful.' A lot of the times they say, 'Alright, let's step up and help.'"

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville AD Josh Heird to address NIL, stadium rights, finances