Northern Arizona Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Marlow Announces Retirement

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Feb. 11, 2025) - After a 33-year career in collegiate athletics administration, including the past seven as Northern Arizona University's vice president for intercollegiate athletics, Mike Marlow announced his retirement this afternoon on Feb. 11, 2025, effective Feb. 28, 2025.
 
Marlow, the 2021-22 FCS Athletic Director of the Year, was named to the position Dec. 13, 2017, and led NAU Athletics to unprecedented success on the field of competition and in the classroom. Additionally, Marlow spearheaded facility projects that directly benefited NAU student-athletes health and welfare.
 
"College athletics has afforded me and my family with many positive memories and friendships that will endure the rest of our lives. Entering our 34th year in college athletics, Barbara and I have decided to begin the next chapter. I will miss the interaction with our coaches, staff, student-athletes, former student-athletes and athletic supporters. Thanks to these people we have found a home in Flagstaff after 33 years and five zip codes," said Marlow. "However, these same people deserve a constant laser focus from my position and I've found myself over the last several months too often daydreaming of life after a career in college athletics."
 
Under Marlow's leadership, NAU Athletics claimed four NCAA Division I championships, 62 regular season and conference tournament championships and invested more than $50 million in facility enhancements. NAU Athletics was awarded the Big Sky Conference Presidents' Cup twice and finished second twice over four consecutive years.  The Presidents' Cup is the conference's highest honor for overall athletic and academic achievement for an athletic program.

"Under Mike Marlow's leadership, NAU Athletics has reached new heights, including numerous national and conference championships, exceptional new facilities, and tremendous success of our student athletes," said NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera. "Mike will be missed, but he has set a strong foundation for our future. I wish him and his family all the best in retirement. Go Jacks!"
 
Throughout his time leading the Lumberjacks, Marlow's driving focus was to maximize the athletic and academic potential of Northern Arizona student-athletes. Some of the notable highlights of his NAU tenure include:
 

• Over $50 million in facility enhancements, including the $3 million state-of-the-art video board cluster in the Walkup Skydome; the $1.4 million artificial surface practice field; a new $1 million competitive surface in the Skydome; and a $47 million best-in-class Student-Athlete High Performance Center.
• The Student-Athlete High Performance Center emphasizes the athletic department's overarching goal of maximizing the academic and athletic potential of all NAU student-athletes.  Featuring an academic center, strength and conditioning center, an elaborate nutrition station, locker rooms, team meeting rooms, basketball practice courts, collaborative research lab, high altitude oxygen chamber, athletic department auditorium and an unparalleled athletic medicine complex. The SAHPC, with its grand hall and hall of fame area, is a testament to honoring those who have donned the blue and gold and provides the type of facility for current student-athletes to maximize their full potential.
• Sixty-two regular season and tournament conference championships have been won by various sports programs since 2018, and the sport of men's cross country has won four NCAA Division I national championships.
• After sweeping the Big Sky Conference Men's and Women's All-Sports Trophies in 2020-21, NAU Athletics successfully defended their Women's All-Sports Trophy win during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 competitive seasons. In 2023-24, NAU returned to the top of the men's side with its conference-leading 18th All-Sports Trophy victory while the women finished second.
• For the 2023-24 academic year, all sports programs achieved a GPA of 3.0 or better.
• 2023 fundraising exceeded $2 million and in 2024, NAU Athletics again topped the $1 million mark for the sixth-consecutive year.  2023 included a transformational gift from Findlay Toyota as they named both Findlay Toyota Field (football) and Findlay Toyota Court (basketball).  Both naming opportunities were a first for NAU Athletics.
• NAU Athletics received five, million-dollar gifts, the first seven-figure gifts in the history of NAU Athletics.
• Fundraising for 2025 has already exceeded expectations with the commitment of the largest major gift in department history.
• Home football attendance averaged over 70% capacity for each of the past four seasons.

 
Shortly after Marlow's hiring at NAU, he led the effort to secure the renewal of the department's Adidas apparel contract, making it the largest apparel agreement in the Big Sky Conference and one of the most lucrative at the Division I FCS level. He initiated an additional area of outreach by developing a partnership with Learfield/Amplify ticket solutions which introduced NAU's first outbound sales effort. Football ticket sales have increased over 260 percent since 2018.
 
On the academic front, NAU posted a department single-year APR of 992 in 2023, the highest in NAU school history.  NAU proudly celebrated that all sports programs achieved a GPA of 3.0 or better for the 2023-24 academic year and additionally 51.38% of student-athletes earned Dean's List. In 2023-24, NAU tied Weber State University for the Big Sky Conference Presidents' Cup and became the runner-up due to the tiebreaker rules set by the conference.
 
While at NAU, Marlow served on several Big Sky Conference committees, chairing the Athletic Directors' Committee and the Basketball Committee, in addition to serving on the Football Committee, Size, Structure & Quality Committee, the Hall of Fame Committee, and the Emergency Action Committee.
 
A 33-year veteran of intercollegiate athletics, Marlow has served as a senior level administrator at the University of Oregon (12 years) and Washington State University (seven years). Marlow began his career in the Big Sky Conference at the University of Montana and also served at the University of Idaho prior to spending nearly 20 years in the Pac-12 Conference. 
 
Prior to arriving at Northern Arizona, Marlow had been part of athletic programs which advanced to over 60 post-season appearances, celebrated numerous conference championships and coach-of-the-year recipients, and a multitude of academic and athletic all-conference honorees.
 
In 2010, Marlow returned to his alma mater, Washington State University, and played a key role in over $130 million in athletic facility investments made under the leadership of President Elson S. Floyd and Athletic Director Bill Moos between 2010 and 2015. Additionally, Marlow worked exclusively with Moos to hire Coach Mike Leach in 2011. Coach Leach revived a football program that had not competed in a bowl game in over a decade by earning five consecutive bowl bids, a first in the program's history. Serving as the Deputy Director of Athletics overseeing the sports of football, men's basketball and baseball, he also supervised ticket sales, fundraising, marketing, corporate sponsorships, multi-media rights and communications as well as serving as WSU's liaison to the Pac-12 Networks. Upon his departure to NAU, WSU Athletics had experienced record revenue growth in terms of ticket sales, annual donations and multi-media rights.
 
Marlow served as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations at the University of Oregon (1998-2010) and oversaw marketing, fundraising, ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, media-rights and communications. During his tenure, he was the sport administrator for several programs, including football, men's basketball, women's volleyball, women's soccer and men's and women's tennis. He was part of the executive leadership team for an athletic program which developed national brand recognition through competitive success, innovation, facility investments and an institution-wide commitment to thinking big. From 1998-2010, Oregon's football season ticket sales doubled, donor contributions more than tripled and over $160 in facility improvements were realized.

A Hoquiam, Wash., native, Marlow earned both his undergraduate and master's degrees from Washington State University. He and his wife, Barbara, have three grown children.