Georgia Southern AD Jared Benko is leaving the school to become the executive deputy AD at Auburn, sources confirmed to FootballScoop on Wednesday. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo first reported the news.
Benko has run Georgia Southern's athletics department since 2020. Prior to that he spent four years as the deputy AD and chief financial officer at Mississippi State.
Benko's accomplishments at Georgia Southern include setting numerous fundraising records on the way to raising $40.95 million in major gifts over his tenure, overseeing $100 million in capital projects, hosting an NCAA baseball regional for the first time in school history, playing all 13 games during the pandemic-impacted 2020 football season, hiring Clay Helton as head football coach, and winning the Sun Belt's AD of the year award on multiple occasions.
At Auburn, he'll reunite with John Cohen, under whom he served as deputy AD at Mississippi State. Prior to Mississippi State, Benko was the assistant AD for finance at Auburn from 2015-16.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.