Colorado has named New Mexico’s Fernando Lovo as its next athletic director, awarding him with a five-year contract that will pay $1.2 million annually.
The school’s board of regents approved the contract Monday for Lovo, who spent the past year at New Mexico after completing his second stint as a Texas administrator. At New Mexico, he hired football coach Jason Eck, who led the Lobos to their first nine-win season since 2016 in his debut.
Lovo will replace Rick George, Colorado’s athletic director since 2013, who will take on an athletic director emeritus role with the school. George hired football coach Deion Sanders, the Pro and College Football Hall of Famer, who is set to enter his fourth season with the Buffaloes next fall. Lovo will begin his role Jan. 1.
“Fernando is a dynamic leader who is perfect for these dynamic times and embodies CU’s high standards and values,” Colorado chancellor Justin Schwartz said in a statement. “He has a proven track record of leading student-athletes to success both in competition and in the classroom, and I’m confident that he is the perfect steward to lead CU Athletics into this new era of college athletics.”
Schwartz told ESPN that Sanders was very involved in the athletic director search, meeting with him and the search firm Colorado used to go through potential candidates. Sanders suggested several candidate names. As Lovo emerged in the search, he met with Sanders as well as George in the days before the deal was finalized.
“Deion Sanders isn’t one who’s ever happy going 6-5, and Fernando’s got a deep competitive spirit,” Schwartz said. “So I think they’re going to be great together.”
Lovo described the meeting with Sanders as “incredible.”
“All the coaches I’ve worked with, it’s always been about trust and alignment and making sure that the coaches know that you’re in the foxhole with them, and you’re going to do everything in your power to support them,” Lovo told ESPN. “Coach Prime’s got my full, unequivocal support.”
Lovo began his career in football operations at Florida, his alma mater, and served as Texas’ chief of staff for football from 2016 until taking the same role with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021. He then returned to Texas as a senior associate athletic director.
