Purdue athletics may be zeroing in on its new leader: Rice athletic director Tommy McClelland.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel tweeted on Monday night that McClelland “has emerged as the target of the Purdue athletic director search, which is expected to culminate this week.”
McClelland would step into a seat Mike Bobinski has occupied since 2016. McClelland would be tasked with taking the Boilermaker sports programs to the next level. A top priority figures to be developing new revenue streams.
McClelland has spent the last three years at Rice, where he began in August 2023. At Rice, a private school in Houston, McClelland expanded scholarship opportunities and launched the South Main Fund, an NIL program.
Prior to working at Rice, McClelland was deputy AD at Vanderbilt from 2020-23. In Nashville, McClelland got ample fund-raising experience. He also worked at Louisiana Tech and was AD at McNeese State when he was 26.
A Basile, La., native, he attended Northwestern State where he played football and took part in track.
Sources: Rice AD Tommy McClelland has emerged as the target of the Purdue athletic director search, which is expected to culminate this week. McClelland brings 18 years as a sitting athletic director and spent nearly four years at Vanderbilt as the football sport administrator. pic.twitter.com/8yrvJw1JGN
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 3, 2026
A look at Purdue’s presumed new AD.