The University of Iowa hired Beth Goetz as its next athletics director, the UI announced on Thursday. According to her signed term sheet, Goetz will earn a base salary of $850,000 over the next five years plus annual performance bonuses and deferred compensation. Goetz’s appointment must be approved by the state Board of Regents.

Goetz previously served as the university’s interim athletics director since Aug. 1, 2022.

Goetz is the first woman to oversee Iowa’s entire athletics department, as Christine Grant served as the women’s athletics director from 1973-2000. She is currently the only woman AD in the Big Ten.

“I am truly honored and humbled to lead Iowa’s storied athletics program, and I am grateful to President Wilson and the search committee for their confidence in my leadership,” Goetz said in a release.

The university launched a national search for a new athletics director at the end of November 2023. The search committee was chaired by Nicole Grosland, associate dean for academic programs in the UI College of Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering.

“The committee had an opportunity to interview multiple sitting athletic directors from across the country. Beth emerged as a finalist with a strong vision to lead the department at this crucial time,” Grosland said in a release.

During Goetz’s time as Iowa’s interim athletics director, the Hawkeye women’s basketball squad broke the all-time attendance record for a women’s basketball game with 55,646 fans. The construction of a new $20 million Gymnastics and Spirit Squads Training Center began in September 2022. The UI completed a feasibility study on Carver-Hawkeye Arena to possibly move the student section closer to the floor to create a better fan environment. One of Goetz’s biggest moves yet was announcing the release of offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

“[Goetz] has done a remarkable job as interim, and I am confident she will lead our athletics department and student-athletes to new levels of achievement both on the field of play and in the classroom,” UI President Barbara Wilson said in a release.

Goetz has also been a strong advocate for The Swarm Collective, a 501c3 non-profit corporation that creates NIL opportunities for Iowa athletes in all 22 sports by “building and enhancing their personal brand while also serving charities and nonprofits in Iowa communities.”

Brad Heinrichs, founder of The Swarm, told The Daily Iowan that Goetz “is completely on board with NIL” and has been “very receptive” to his ideas. The collective played a crucial role in recruiting football players Jay Higgins, Nick Jackson, Sebastian Castro, Quinn Schulte, Jermari Harris, and Luke Lachey to return to the Hawkeyes for a final season.

Along with Heinrichs, Goetz has earned plenty of endorsements from coaches across campus, including football coach Kirk Ferentz, men’s wrestling coach Tom Brands, and men’s and women’s basketball coaches Fran McCaffery and Lisa Bluder.

“I’m telling you, I think every coach — and it’s hard to get every coach to agree on something — is behind her 100 percent,” Bluder said of Goetz on Oct. 9, 2022. “She’s an unbelievable team builder. She is a great leader. She’s a great communicator, a great listener as well. I just think if we don’t hire her, that would be a really, really not smart thing to do.”

Goetz first joined the Iowa athletics staff from Ball State University, where she served as athletics director from 2018-22. Ball State won 10 Mid-American Conference championships under Goetz and achieved the highest Academic Progress Rate in program history in 2020-21.

Before Ball State, Goetz served as the chief operating officer and senior woman administrator at UConn from 2016-18. She acted as Minnesota’s deputy athletics director from 2013-15 and interim athletics director during the 2015-16 season. Goetz served as associate athletics director at Butler from 2008-13.

Goetz was an accomplished soccer player throughout college. She earned All-American honors at Brevard College and was inducted into the Tornado’s Hall of Fame in 2017. Goetz finished her collegiate soccer career at Clemson, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1996.

She went on to earn her master’s degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2000. She was the Tritons’ women’s soccer team’s head coach from 1997-08 and was assistant athletic director and senior woman administrator from 2001-08.

Goetz has also taken on several national leadership positions.

In 2018, she was named to the NCAA Competition Oversight Committee in 2018. She was recognized by the Indianapolis Business Journal as one of the 2021 Women of Influence and named by Women Leaders in College Sports as the 2022 NCAA Division I FBS Nike Executive of the Year.

Goetz also served as vice chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee in 2021 before stepping into the chair position in 2022-23.