Mike Bobinski

In his ninth year guiding Purdue Athletics, Executive Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Bobinski has raised expectations, expanded support for all student-athletes and inspired the Boilermakers’ passionate fan base with notable academic, competitive and development successes.

These aforementioned achievements include the rise of Purdue Men’s Basketball to consistent national prominence under head coach Matt Painter, monumental victories and bowl trophies for Boilermaker Football and multi-million dollar facility enhancements to Ross-Ade Stadium, Mackey Arena and the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex.

Hoops at the highest level is what the Purdue faithful experience year-in and year-out, as Painter's crew has reached the Sweet 16 six times in the last eight tournaments, only trailing Gonzaga's seven Sweet 16 appearances in that time span. The Boiler men's squad finished 2024-25 ranked No. 14 in the final AP Top 25 poll, marking the fifth straight year that Purdue has finished the season ranked in the final poll (20th - 2021; 10th - 2022; 3rd - 2023; 2nd - 2024; 14th - 2025).

Success across all 18 sport programs has become an expectation at Purdue, with noteworthy accomplishments in recent seasons of competition. The Old Gold & Black’s volleyball program twice reached the NCAA Regional Finals (2020, 2021), the soccer squad advanced to the NCAA Tournament (2021) and the women’s basketball team returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six seasons with a March Madness berth in 2023. Purdue’s golf programs have excelled, with both the men’s and women’s squads combining for 13 NCAA Regional appearances since 2017. 
 
Three Big Ten Conference regular season championships have been claimed by Purdue Men’s Basketball (2017, 2019, 2023), as well as one tournament trophy (2023). Football claimed its first-ever Big Ten West Division title in 2022, and additionally, women’s outdoor track & field won the 2017 Big Ten Championship.

Purdue set an athletics department record during the 2021-22 school year with 265 Academic All-Big Ten honorees. In total under Bobinski’s watch, Boilermaker student-athletes have earned 47 Academic All-America or All-American scholar recognitions. 
 
Fundraising success has been significant during Bobinski’s tenure, including the COVID-necessitated More Than A Game campaign, which raised $18.5 million and allowed Purdue Athletics to continue functioning without reducing sport programs or assuming any debt. 

The John Purdue Club (JPC) secured a record-breaking $83 million in donations in 2022, including the largest cash gift in Purdue Athletics history at $20 million. JPC membership growth has been substantial, with the annual scholarship fund bringing in a record-setting amount of $13.5 million in 2023 to fully cover student-athlete scholarships for the second consecutive year. Bobinski and his team were responsible for raising $95 million in capital project funding that will be completed by Spring 2025 on the athletics campus. 

Unveiled in April 2025 and adding to the already elite college golf experience provided at Purdue was the Pete Dye Clubhouse, which includes the classic steakhouse, Boilerhouse Prime. The $34.4 million project was funded by men's golf program alumnus Sam Allen ('75) and his wife, Purdue alumna Marsha Allen ('75). 
 
Purdue’s energized fan base has responded, with Mackey Arena currently holding an 89-game sellout streak for Coach Painter’s hoops program heading into the 2025-26 season. Football attendance has grown from a season average of 34,500 in 2016 to more than 57,000 for the 2023 season, spurring forward the recently completed $45.4 million renovation at Ross-Ade Stadium.

In 2017-18, Purdue accumulated a school-record 585.5 points in the Directors' Cup to rank 39th out of 351 schools, the 89th percentile. The placement was the best by the Boilermakers in nine years. Purdue teams achieved an average Big Ten finish of 6.30, good for fourth place and the department's best showing in eight years. 

Bobinski, who was named the ninth full-time athletics director in Purdue history Aug. 9, 2016 - the first with no previous ties to the school - has continued to guide the Boilermakers to greater heights. He is under contract through June 30, 2028.

Bobinski is just the fourth full-time athletics director at Purdue since 1942, following Guy “Red” Mackey (1942-71), George King (1971-92) and Morgan Burke (1993-2016).

Before coming to Purdue, Bobinski enjoyed successful stints as athletics director at Georgia Tech (2013-16), Xavier (1998-2004, 2006-13) and Akron (1994-98). Between stints as AD at Xavier, he served as associate vice president for development, overseeing all of the university's fundraising efforts, including major gifts, grant services, and annual and planned giving.

Highlights of Bobinski's three years at Georgia Tech included the football team winning the 2014 Orange Bowl and being ranked No. 8 in the final national poll, an NCAA Sweet 16 berth for women's tennis in 2016, conference championships and top-10 NCAA finishes by men's golf in 2014 and 2015, and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for baseball in 2013 and 2014.

During Bobinski's 12-year tenure at Xavier, nine programs combined for 40 team or individual spots in NCAA championship competition. The men's basketball program averaged 25 wins, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in 2004 and 2008. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named Bobinski the 2011-12 Under Armour Division I Northeast Athletics Director of the Year.

From 1989-94, Bobinski was associate director of athletics at the U.S. Naval Academy. He served as associate and assistant business manager at Notre Dame from 1984-89.

Bobinski served as chair of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee for the 2012-13 season, and he completed a term on the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee in 2019.

As a licensed certified public accountant, Bobinski went into accounting with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells and Arthur Young & Company from 1979-82. He subsequently worked for the Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Florida, from 1982-84 before moving into college athletics.

A native of Yaphank on Long Island, New York, Bobinski earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Notre Dame in 1979, graduating magna cum laude, while playing four years for the Fighting Irish baseball team.

Bobinski (born Oct. 28, 1957) has two children, Melissa (a 2009 Xavier graduate) and Brian (a 2012 Ohio State graduate), and two grandchildren, Maggie and Bo.