Hill helped negotiate Exactech's $8.5M naming-rights deal for Florida's basketball arena GETTY IMAGES
UNC Charlotte's "search for a new leader for its athletic department" concluded yesterday, with the school announcing Florida Exec Associate AD/External Affairs Mike Hill as its new AD, according to David Scott of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Hill will "take over on March 15 and be introduced at a public news conference on March 6." He will replace Judy Rose, who "announced her retirement in January." Rose will "work through June 30." Among Hill’s primary duties will be to "help breathe life" back into the school's marquee sports of football and basketball. Hill and Penn State Deputy AD & COO Phil Esten were "finalists for the position." Both were in Charlotte earlier this week for "on-campus interviews." Hill had a "two-year stint" as Ball State Assistant AD and then went to UF in '93 as a marketing coordinator. He was promoted to his current role in '12. Among Hill’s accomplishments at UF was his negotiating an $8.5M naming-rights deal for the school’s basketball arena (CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.com, 2/28). UF AD Scott Stricklin said of Hill, "He did a phenomenal job at Florida. We benefited from him being at Florida and Charlotte gets the benefit now. We’ll get someone good, but he won’t have the institutional experience of Mike" (GAINESVILLE.com, 2/28).
