Jeff Mitchell - Director of Athletics<br><i>(Sports Supervision: Football, Baseball)</i> - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Jeff Mitchell

Title:
Director of Athletics
(Sports Supervision: Football, Baseball)
Email:
Phone:
765-285-5131

                Jeff Mitchell was introduced as the Cardinals’ Director of Athletics on February 6, 2023. A respected administrator with more than two decades of experience in higher education and athletics administration, Mitchell is currently in his third year as a member of the Ball State University senior executive team and leads an athletics department that sponsors 19 programs with more than 450 student-athletes.
                During his first two years at the helm, Mitchell’s leadership has fostered significant competitive success, new standards of academic excellence, an increased commitment to community engagement, enhanced growth in philanthropic support and revenue generation, and an investment into comprehensive facility improvements.
               In Mitchell’s second full year guiding the Cardinals' sports enterprise, he led Ball State to securing its first-ever Carol A. Cartwright Award, signifying the Mid-American Conference’s best overall athletics program while weighing academic excellence, athletic success and civic engagement – as voted upon by each of the MAC's 13 institutions. In 2024-25, the Cardinals saw five programs finish in the top four of MAC conference play, including women’s basketball’s MAC regular season and tournament titles along with national qualifiers in indoor track, outdoor track, and men's and women's golf. Academically, Ball State's performance established a new standard in 2024-25 as all 19 varsity programs recorded a team GPA above 3.0 in both semesters, with the department achieving its highest spring semester GPA in the past decade (3.487) and its highest full-year GPA in 10 years (3.46). In the community, the Cardinals logged more than 4,200 hours of community service in Muncie and in East Central Indiana.
                Mitchell’s emphasis and everyday focus calls for positivity, building foundations for future success, and "making excellence routine." In addition to the competitive and academic milestones, Mitchell negotiated a new multimedia rights deal with Peak Sports MGMT valued at more than $10 million dollars while fundraising for Ball State athletics has recorded its highest two-year total ever with more than $17.9 million raised. Also, nearly every one of Ball State's sports venues has undergone significant change over the past two years. Completed or approved construction projects account for approximately $25 million in facility enhancements. The new $7.8 million Eric Foss Championship Performance Center is currently under construction while new playing surfaces and flooring systems have been upgraded at Scheumann Stadium (football), the Briner Sports Complex (field hockey and track), the Foster Adams Family Tennis Complex and Bill Richards Tennis Courts, Worthen Arena for basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics, and at Shebek Stadium (baseball) and the Ball State Softball Stadium. Says Mitchell, "These facilities are our foundation – for student athletes, for fans, for recruits, and for overall success."
                During his tenure, Mitchell has helped guide Ball State athletics to nine conference championships and advance to 27 team and individual postseason appearances. That success earned Ball State the prestigious Jacoby Trophy in 2023 awarded to the MAC institution with the top-rated women’s program, while the Cardinals also finished second for the Reese Trophy awarded to the league’s top performing men’s program. Ball State finished in the top 25 percent of all Division I athletics programs in the LEARFIELD Director’s Cup and the highest ranking in the Mid-American Conference in 2023.
                The Cardinals have placed in the top three among MAC schools in the LEARFIELD Director’s Cup in three of the past four years, and twice in those four years have earned the MAC’s Institutional Achievement Award given to the conference’s best scoring institution based on academic success.
                Prior to arriving in Muncie, Mitchell served as Deputy Director of Athletics at the University of Southern Mississippi for nearly five years and managed the daily operations of the Golden Eagles’ athletics department while providing leadership for special projects, such as “#ToTheTop25,” the department’s strategic plan. He also negotiated a long-term, $19 million-dollar multimedia partnership with LEARFIELD.
                Mitchell served as the Southern Miss interim director of athletics during the 2018-19 academic year. He also assisted in the planning and development of $7.5 million in facility upgrades at Southern Miss, including a new student-athlete academic center, a new synthetic turf baseball field and state-of-the-art LED lighting system, a new basketball court redesign and state-of-the-art LED lighting system, and enhancements to the baseball locker room, the M-Club lounge and kitchen, and the athletics administration building.
                For the Golden Eagles, Mitchell served as the primary sport administrator for men’s basketball and baseball in addition to serving as the administrator for football scheduling. During Mitchell’s tenure at Southern Miss, baseball made four NCAA regional appearances and two super regional appearances while men’s basketball played in the CBI postseason tournament in 2019 and the NIT in 2023. The football team participated in the Armed Forces Bowl following the 2019 season and won the 2022 LendingTree Bowl.
                Mitchell joined Southern Miss after a successful 12-year stint at Santa Clara University where he climbed from volunteer to interim director of athletics. Mitchell served as the interim director of athletics for five months in 2015 and then served as senior associate athletics director for external relations until August 2018. He was the sport administrator for the Bronco men’s basketball and baseball programs, was a member of the West Coast Conference basketball cabinet and served a three-year term on the NCAA Division I Baseball Regional Advisory Committee for the West Region (2015-17). During his time at Santa Clara, the Broncos secured 22 team NCAA tournament bids, 11 individual NCAA postseason invitations across eight different sports, and seven WCC championships. The Broncos claimed two postseason tournament titles in men’s basketball in 2011 (CIT) and 2013 (CBI).
                Mitchell is the co-author of a textbook entitled “Sport, Ethics and Leadership,” which was published in 2017, and he served as an adjunct professor of business leadership at Southern Miss. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (2001) and Master of Business Administration (2003) degrees from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was a four-year member of the varsity baseball team, a four-year member of the athletic department’s sports information staff, and assistant baseball coach. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 2005, where he also served as a graduate assistant in the external relations unit and primarily worked with the Ole Miss football and men’s basketball programs.
                Mitchell and his wife, April, are parents to daughter, Harper Wynne (16), and son, Carson (12).