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A day after Kevin Warren made history with the Chicago Bears, Zac Selmon and Mississippi State decided to join him.
On Friday morning, the SEC school announced they were hiring Selmon, Oklahoma’s deputy athletic director, as the Bulldogs’ new AD. That made Selmon Mississippi State’s first Black athletic director in school history.
“In seeking a new Director of Athletics, we talked with some of the nation’s very best athletics department administrators,” said Mississippi State University President Mark E. Keenum in a statement. “After an extensive review of those outstanding candidates, I am convinced that in Zac Selmon we found an outstanding leader with a servant’s heart – a leader who has extensive experience at two Power Five universities and who understands and shares our relentless commitment to achieving and maintaining excellence in our Bulldog athletics programs – all of them.”
Selmon, who replaces former AD John Cohen after he left for Auburn, comes from a family of success on the field and giving back off of it.
The former Wake Forest tight end arrives after spending seven years with the Sooners’ athletic department. There he helped set annual giving records in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He and his sister also co-founded the Shine Foundation, a nonprofit which serves those in need at home and abroad.
Yet Selmon is most known for his famous father, Dewey and uncles, Lee Roy and Lucious Selmon. They are some of the most decorated and honored athletes in Oklahoma Sooners football history and they have a statue dedicated to them on the campus. With at least one Selmon on the field, the Sooners went 54-3-1 and won two national championships during that time (1971-1975).
Now Selmon, 37, gets to bring that tradition of success and family values to Mississippi State as the head of its athletic department.
“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity and a professional journey that I’m ready to begin,” said Selmon. “I want to thank Dr. Keenum for his confidence in me. I’m grateful to my family for preparing me from an early age to work hard and trust in God. I have a deep and abiding respect for Mississippi State’s traditions and the role this university plays in taking care of what matters in this state and nation. My family and I are eager to join the Bulldog family.”
Selmon, a 2007 dean’s list scholar at Wake Forest, also brings great athletic administration experience to Starkville, MS.
He worked in the athletic departments of both UNC and OU. He also completed his master’s degree in education with an emphasis in intercollegiate athletics administration at Oklahoma in 2010.
Now he’s MSU’s 18th athletic director in school history, and a history-making one at that. Congrats AD Selmon!
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