Shane Lyons
In his fourth year as the director of athletics at West Virginia University, Shane Lyons has a clear vision for his athletic program. It’s a vision that focuses on the betterment of more than 500 student-athletes and the day-to-day needs that will help them succeed in the classroom and in competition.
Lyons came to West Virginia after spending three years as the deputy director of athletics and chief operating officer at Alabama where he worked closely on day-to-day strategic leadership and direction of the Crimson Tide Athletic program.
During his time at Alabama, his responsibilities included oversight of a $120 million budget, management of the day-to-day operations of the department and oversight of the Crimson Tide’s 21 sports teams.
Prior to joining the Alabama staff in November 2011, Lyons spent 10 years as an associate commissioner at the Atlantic Coast Conference. In addition, he served as the ACC’s human resource manager and was responsible for the administration, negotiation and mediation of the employee benefits program and managing the conference’s organizational policies and procedures. He was part of the senior administrative team for ACC events, including the football championship game, the men’s basketball tournament and men’s and women’s NCAA basketball events.
Prior to working at the ACC, Lyons served as associate athletics director for compliance at Big 12 member Texas Tech from 1998 to 2001. During that time, Lyons assumed responsibility for the leadership, administration and implementation of a comprehensive NCAA compliance program with emphasis toward rules education and extensive monitoring systems.
Before joining Texas Tech, Lyons worked at the NCAA for almost 10 years as a senior membership services representative, where he was responsible for the oversight and coordination of rules and interpretations for the 25 membership service representatives and was the staff liaison to various NCAA standing committees.
Lyons began his career in college athletics in July 1988 as assistant commissioner of the Big South Conference. With the Big South, he was in charge of conference-wide compliance and championships.
A native of Parkersburg, West Virginia, and a graduate of Parkersburg High, Lyons was a standout basketball player for the Big Reds. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sport management from WVU in 1987 and 1988, respectively. Lyons, the University’s 12th athletic director, and his wife, Emily, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have two children: Cameron and Brooke.
