STATESBORO - A veteran of the collegiate athletics landscape, Dr. Ryan Hall has been named the Executive Deputy Director of Athletics, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Georgia Southern Athletics, as announced by Director of Athletics Chris Davis. He will begin his new role in early January of 2025.

"I want to sincerely thank AD Chris Davis, President Marrero, and the Athletic Foundation Board for offering me this incredible opportunity to contribute my skills and help further elevate Georgia Southern Athletics under Chris's visionary leadership. During my visit to campus and the Statesboro community, it was clear to me that Eagle Nation takes immense pride in its student-athletes and the remarkable tradition of excellence they've built over the years. My family and I are thrilled to join such a vibrant community, and we look forward to working together to continue raising the bar for Georgia Southern Athletics. GATA and Hail Southern!"

Dr. Hall comes to Statesboro from Rice University where he started as the Associate AD of Development in August of 2022 before being promoted to the Senior Associate AD of Development on March 1, 2024, where he oversaw all facets of the athletic development office including major gifts, the annual fund, and letterwinner engagement. Dr. Hall came to Rice and led a new development team that set the best dollar total for Rice Athletics since 2017 and also set a record for the most amount of Rice Athletic donors ever in a fiscal year in 2023-24. This resulted in over $2 million annual dollars for the athletic department in back-to-back years from 1,800 different donors. This was an increase of 46% from the previous year and nearly 900 donors made gifts to the Owl Club for the first time in 23-24. This success also saw record totals for Rice Athletic events that included "Evening for Rice's Honour" and "Night of Flight" as well as other events throughout the year. Rice's Day of Giving also saw records broken, greatly exceeding goals in both dollars and donors. In addition to other specific fundraising initiatives, Dr. Hall secured two new athletic endowments during the 22-23 school year and seven major gifts in the past four months, bringing his first half of the 24-25 fiscal year total dollars raised to a little over $2 million for the department. Dr. Hall also helped secure other philanthropic gifts throughout the department.

 "I am excited to have Dr. Ryan Hall join our Georgia Southern Athletics team," Davis said. "His diverse background from being around athletics at multiple levels and being part of various brands provide a depth of knowledge and skill set that will impact his new role here. As I called people around the country, one common theme that was apparent was that Ryan is a guy who gets things done and also is a great communicator and a people person. I think his wife, Lindsey, and his kids will fit in seamlessly to the Statesboro community and will love being part of Eagle Nation."

Along with his development duties, Dr. Hall served as the interim head of all external units for Rice Athletics from May 2024 to August 2024, overseeing Marketing, Ticketing, Communications, and Corporate Sponsorships. During that time, Dr. Hall ran the weekly external meetings and weekly one-on-ones with each department division leader. Finally, Dr. Hall led and completed the first-year and five-year strategic plans for all five units of Rice Athletics. 

Outside of his development duties, Dr. Hall volunteered his time to work the 2023 NCAA Final Four and served as sport administrator for Rice Football in 2023 and Women's Soccer in 2024.

He came to Rice from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana where he served as the Associate Athletic Director for External Operations and Executive Director of the Demons Unlimited Foundation. 

In this role, Dr. Hall oversaw all Marketing, Ticketing, Corporate Sponsorship, and Development efforts for the department while also serving as the Major Gifts Officer. In addition, Dr. Hall chaired the search for the Director of Marketing and Director of Development positions. While also in this role, he had sports oversight for the women's soccer program which was the defending Southland Conference regular season and tournament champions. 

He began his tenure at NSU as the assistant athletic director for development where his primary focus was the Demons Unlimited Foundation Annual Fund and N-Club (for letter winners at NSU). During his time at NSU, Dr. Hall was vital in helping NSU get their largest single private gift to the athletic department at 1.5 million as well as securing other major gifts during his tenure. His creativity and fundraising efforts allowed the NSU Demon Unlimited Foundation Annual Fund to reach the highest level in school history at $345,000 and saw growth for the N-Club in both membership and dollars for the department through his creative efforts. Dr. Hall successfully executed the "Summer Demon Social Tour," "Thank a Donor Day," and "NSU Athletics Day of Giving" which also saw a new department record at $51,100. He was also a key component in planning and executing event planning during his time at NSU, particularly their Biennial Scholarship auction which grossed over $90,000 in revenue for the department. 

Dr. Hall came to Northwestern State in March 2021 following an extremely successful two-and-a-half-year stint as athletic director at Mayville State in North Dakota. 

During Dr. Hall's Mayville State tenure, he developed the first athletic sponsorship program at the university, which netted $330,000 and instituted the first Athletic Day of Giving for Mayville State, which helped generate $15,000 of the university's overall $140,000 raised that day. 

Additionally, Dr. Hall was instrumental in the creation and implementation of the White Hat Club for Mayville State alumni, the first sport-specific alumni club at the school. The White Hat Club raised more than $160,000 since its inception. 

Operationally, the Comets softball team was able to play their home games on campus for the first time in school history in 2019. Jerome Berg (football) Field was turned into a softball diamond during the spring season. In his first year as MSU athletic director, Dr. Hall inked a five-year athletics-wide brand deal with Nike and BSN Sports, an agreement that tremendously improved the department. In 2020, the Lewy Lee gymnasium got a face lift, including a brand-new floor design, new paint patterns and concession stand improvements. 

Competitively, the Comets athletic programs excelled on the court/field, as well as in the classroom under Dr. Hall's direction. The Comets garnered four conference titles between men's basketball and women's basketball. Both programs advanced to the national tournament in 2019. Softball had one of the best seasons in its recent history in 2019, finishing third place in the North Star conference. Volleyball consistently finished in the top half of the conference and baseball continued its rich tradition of excellence on the diamond. 

During Dr. Hall's tenure, the Comets were named two-time NAIA gold level Champions of Character members and five of the six athletic programs were awarded NAIA Scholar Teams. Seven Comet student-athletes achieved NAIA All-American status, as well as 44 all-conference selections. In the classroom, 133 earned academic all-conference honors, while 87 MSU student-athletes were named NAIA Scholar-Athletes.  

Communication was another focal point during Dr. Hall's MSU tenure. He enhanced communications from his department through quarterly e-mails, coaches interview shows, game watch parties, and continued game day radio and Internet broadcasts. Dr. Hall served on many boards and committees at MSU including the MSU Foundation, the Comet Athletic Club, the president's cabinet, and several others. He also was the athletics liaison to the COVID-19 campus task force. He was a member of the Athletic Directors Association and served as a mentor as well. Dr. Hall remains a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, the National Association of Athletic Development Directors, and ADs for Christ. 

Before arriving at Mayville State, Dr. Hall spent eight years at Benedictine College Preparatory in Richmond, Virginia, starting as an associate athletic director before spending the final five years as the athletic director. 

While at Benedictine Prep, Dr. Hall raised more than $100,000 annually, continuing a trend in his professional career, which began as a sports marketing executive for ESPN 950 in Richmond. 

A graduate of both Ferrum College (B.S. in political science) and Virginia Commonwealth University (M. ED in sport leadership), Dr. Hall was a three-time Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association state wrestling coach of the year, coaching Benedictine to four state titles, a top 10 prep national finish, and also spent four years as the head soccer coach at Benedictine College Prep. 

He completed his doctoral degree in global sport leadership at East Tennessee State University in May of 2024. 

Dr. Hall and his wife, Lindsey, have four children – OJ (11), Berkeley (9), Brooklyn (5), and McGregor (2). 

This hiring is pending a final background check.