THE FLATS – Brent Jones, who led Troy University athletics to unprecedented success in six years as the Trojans’ director of athletics, has been appointed as associate vice president and executive deputy athletics director at Georgia Tech, vice president/director of athletics Ryan Alpert announced on Wednesday.
“I’m very excited to welcome Brent, his wife, Tracey, and their children, Jaxson and Payton Grace, to the Georgia Tech community,” Alpert said. “Brent has everything that we were looking for to fill such an important role in our athletics department. He is an established leader at the FBS level, a dynamic fundraiser and revenue generator, and a proven brand-builder. He will play a huge role in fulfilling our championship aspirations here on The Flats.”
Jones spent eight-plus years at Troy (March 2017-July 2025), including the last six as senior vice chancellor and director of athletics. In his six years as A.D. (June 2019-July 2025), Troy won 10 Sun Belt Conference championships (regular season and tournament). The titles included two regular-season West Division championships and two Sun Belt Football Championship Game victories in the past three seasons. Additionally, this past year, the Trojans won both regular-season and conference tournament championships in men’s basketball, earning a berth in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
The Trojans also excelled in several other sports under Jones’ watch. The baseball program spent parts of the last two seasons ranked in the top 25, including every week of the 2025 campaign, when it reached as high as a program-record No. 14 in the national rankings. Troy’s women’s basketball program won the 2020 Sun Belt Conference championship, the 2021 East Division and tournament championships and the 2022 regular-season title, and recently, has experienced its greatest postseason success with a WNIT semifinal appearance in 2024 and berth in the WNIT title game in 2025. The men’s golf program also experienced its best season of its Division I era in 2025, advancing to the NCAA Championship.
The success of Jones’ tenure at Troy was buoyed by strong coaching hires. Four of the seven head coaches that he hired either won conference championships and/or made postseason appearances within the first two years of their appointments, with three (football, baseball and men’s golf) programs earning national rankings.
Record-breaking fundraising and revenue generation were a staple of Jones’ time at Troy, as the Trojans set records for total fundraising, major gifts, corporate-sponsorship revenue, licensing revenue and tickets during his six years at the helm. Troy’s brand continued to rise with new officially licensed merchandise from premium brands and expansion of overall market placement. The Trojans also launched their first officially licensed consumables with their first craft beer, as well as the first officially licensed bourbons and wines in the state of Alabama.
In collaboration with university leadership, Troy invested significantly into athletic capital projects, including the newly renovated Riddle-Pace Field (baseball), a soon-to-be completed indoor practice facility, investments in soccer and volleyball playing surfaces, installation of the largest baseball and softball videoboards in the Sun Belt, investments in the tennis complex to include better branding, resurfacing of courts and new scoreboard, as well as a brand new videoboard at the soccer/track complex that comes online in fall of 2025.
Jones was promoted to A.D. at Troy after nearly two-and-a-half years as deputy A.D. for external operations. Prior to his eight-plus years at Troy, he also spent time in the athletics administrations at Southern Miss (associate A.D./marketing and communications – 2011-2015; senior associate A.D./external affairs – 2015-17), Georgia Southern (director/Eagle Sports Marketing – 2006-10; assistant A.D./Eagle Sports Marketing – 2010-11) and Ole Miss (athletics intern – 2004; graduate assistant/sports marketing – 2005; director of gameday operations for marketing – 2005-06).
His long list of professional honors includes being selected to serve as chair of the Sun Belt Athletics Directors Committee and being appointed to the FBS Athletics Directors’ Association board of directors and NCAA Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee. He also served on the board for the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
“First, I would like to thank Troy University Chancellor Jack Hawkins Jr. for the leadership, friendship and support that he has provided and offered me throughout my tenure,” Jones said. “Troy University is a very special university and I am grateful for my years of being a Troy Trojan. I am extremely excited to join the Georgia Tech Athletic Association and to be able to continue the momentum on The Flats. The opportunity to work with Ryan, who is one of the most forward-thinking and dynamic leaders in intercollegiate athletics, at one of the premier institutions of higher education in the nation, is an incredible opportunity.”
An Atlanta-area native, Jones grew up in Stone Mountain, Ga. He played college baseball at UNC Asheville, Augusta State and Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history (secondary education minor). He earned a master’s degree in education from Ole Miss.
Jones and his wife, Tracey, have a son, Jaxson, and a daughter, Payton Grace.
