NCAA Senior Vice President of Championships Joni Comstock announced her retirement Wednesday, effective March 1. She has served in her leadership position since joining the national office in 2006.
Comstock's duties have included oversight of 84 NCAA championships, media coordination and statistics, playing rules, ticket operations and marketing, merchandise and licensing, and social and digital media. The Association's senior woman administrator recently played an integral role in the NCAA's new media rights agreement with ESPN.
Before her 17-year stint as a member of the NCAA executive team, Comstock spent 27 years on campus in a variety of roles, including athletics director, administrator and coach.
She joined the national office after serving from 2003-06 as athletics director of American, where she was responsible for 16 Division I sports programs, its recreational sports and its athletics facilities. She also optimized development, marketing, promotions and event sponsorship at the university, which led to a 200% growth in gifts and 40% growth in departmental revenue.
From 2000-03, Comstock was athletics director at UNC Asheville, where she was credited with improving the departmental environment and participation levels with respect to gender equity without the elimination of any athletics programs. She instituted a development campaign for the construction of a new indoor arena and offices, and created a successful atmosphere within the sports programs, which included the school's first berth and first-round victory in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
From 1989-2000, she was senior associate director of athletics at Purdue, where she managed 14 sports programs and internal operations. During her tenure, Purdue won a national championship in women's basketball and began a new women's softball program.
Additionally, Comstock was an assistant director of athletics at Illinois from 1983-89, where she was responsible for the marketing, promotions and special events campaigns for women's sports programs. In her role at Illinois, she also assisted with compliance issues and supervised sports camps and clinics for all sports. She began her career as a coach and instructor of volleyball, men's tennis and women's basketball at Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois, from 1979-83.
Comstock received her bachelor's degree in health and physical education at Eastern Illinois, a master's degree in education and sports management from Illinois State and a doctorate in administration of higher education from Illinois.
