BYU athletic department undergoes restructuring
By Nate Church,
August 27, 2026
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Just nine days before the first football game of the season, BYU has split up the responsibilities of its athletic department, according to the Deseret News.Formerly, athletic director Brian Santiago oversaw each of the university’s sports programs. Now, however, football will be removed from his oversight and given to Keith Vorkink, who serves as the advancement vice president for BYU."Today's organizational adjustments reflect BYU's commitment to invest in our student-athletes and strengthen our world-class programs," university spokeswoman Audrey Perry Martin said in a statement. "Brian Santiago remains BYU's athletic director. We will continue adapting to the changing landscape of college athletics in a way that aligns with the university's mission." Over the past few weeks, coach Kalani Sitake has expressed to the media his desire for increased resources and his frustration with those resources not being made available to the flagship program of the university.In a July 30 radio interview, Sitake said his team was “challenged with doing the most with the least.”In that same interview, Sitake encouraged the athletic department to keep investing in BYU football and avoid repeating past mistakes.As Sitake continued to express his concerns, rumors about his relationship with Santiago started to fly. At the team’s photo day earlier this month, Sitake was asked about whether or not he had received the resources he needed. He told the media that they should contact his agent moving forward.Under the new structure, Sitake will no longer have to report to Santiago when it comes to BYU football. This change comes amid public speculation about the nature of the relationship between Sitake and Santiago. The Cougars have had exceptional success on the football field over the past two seasons and are looking to further establish themselves on the national stage. Part of that effort is making an appearance in the College Football Playoff, something that BYU has been on the cusp of doing.Outside of football, BYU athletics has also had significant success. This includes various national championships in track and field and former BYU basketball star AJ Dybantsa being selected as the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.“Given today’s dynamic athletics landscape, we feel it's important to be providing more administrative support not less,” Vorkink told the Deseret News. “We’ve made recent hires with that in mind and we’re also organizing in ways that we believe will support BYU’s world-class programs.”In a broader sense, this move of splitting up the responsibilities of athletic department leaders is not a first. The University of Utah has split up its athletic department and handed over certain duties to a private equity firm.As college sports continue to change and develop by the day, universities have been forced to delegate responsibility in order to keep up. Many of these universities are adopting models used by professional sports teams.
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byu football
kalani sitake
brian santiago
Keith Vorkink
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