Ike Ukaegbu was named Deputy Director of Athletics at WSU in June of 2022.
Ukaegbu leads the group of sport administrators charged with providing day-to-day oversight of WSU’s varsity sports. The group develops consistent policies/procedures, and each sport administrator oversees all aspects of their respective program(s), including public relations, personnel, budgeting, capital projects, fundraising, student-athlete welfare and overall program evaluation.
Ukaegbu serves as sport administrator for football and men’s basketball. Within his football and men’s basketball duties, he oversees postseason/bowl game selection & planning and nonconference scheduling. He has been involved in fundraising discussions and capital projects which enhance the student-athlete experience at WSU. Ukaegbu is currently serving on an athletics department committee coordinating a $3.3 million design and renovation of WSU’s Football locker room (construction scheduled to begin in January 2026 and conclude in July 2026). He also recently served on athletics department committees which coordinated and designed the $27 million Taylor Sports Complex (indoor practice facility which opened in October 2024) and the $12 million Champions Center (facility for Academic Services, Student-Athlete Development, Mental Health Services & Performance Nutrition which opened in December 2024). Additionally, he led efforts in the summer of 2023 to generate $750K and coordinated/oversaw the replacement of the Rogers Field football practice field turf.
In addition to his senior leadership and sport oversight responsibilities, Ukaegbu supervises several department units, including strength and conditioning, athletic medicine, equipment operations, nutrition and WSU Athletics’ Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) efforts.
Ukaegbu was one of ten senior-level athletics administrators throughout the FBS who participated in the LEAD1 Fellows Program 2023-2024 cohort. The goal of the Fellows program is to help senior administrators deemed most ready to assume the athletics director position advance their careers through critical industry networking and interview preparation.
Prior to WSU, Ukaegbu served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Compliance at Texas Christian University (TCU) from 2014-2022. While there, he oversaw all areas of TCU’s comprehensive athletics compliance operations for the department’s 22 sport programs, was the sport administrator for the men’s basketball, swimming & diving and rifle programs, oversaw TCU’s NIL efforts and was also a member of the Athletic Director’s Executive Team. Prior to TCU, Ukaegbu held compliance positions at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Boise State, Cal State Fullerton, American University and Florida Atlantic University (FAU).
Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, Ukaegbu was one of 20 individuals who participated in the yearlong NCAA Pathway Program, which prepares senior-level athletics administrators to attain positions as directors of athletics or conference commissioners. He has served on numerous institutional, conference and national committees and organizations including, but not limited to the National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC) Convention Committee in which he chaired the Networking Subcommittee, the NCAA Eligibility Center Vice President Search Committee in which he represented the Division I membership, the TCU Chief Inclusion Officer Search Committee in which he represented the athletics department, and the WSU Presidential Search Committee in which he also represented the athletics department.
In August 2020, he was selected as the TCU Chancellor’s Staff Award recipient, which recognizes a university staff member noted for exemplary service and above and beyond contributions to the welfare of the campus community. Ukaegbu, in collaboration with other athletics department staff members and campus partners, spearheaded the launch of TCU’s Name, Image & Likeness program, “Scaled to Succeed.”
Ukaegbu earned a B.A. in Political Science with a Minor in Pre-Law from the University of Arizona in 2007 and a Master’s of Science in Sports Administration from St. Thomas University (Miami, Fla.) in 2008. He and his wife, Katie, have three children, Devin, Rosie and Spencer.
