As of Wednesday morning, Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich still had not decided whether or not to take over the same post at the University of Miami. But, according to a source, that decision is likely coming sooner rather than later.
Should Radakovich depart for his alma mater, where might the Tigers look for his replacement? Down the hall at the McFadden Building would be a good place to start.
Radakovich has spent the better part of a decade in charge of Clemson athletics with Graham Neff at his side for most of it. Neff has been Radakovich’s right-hand man since coming to Clemson in 2013, first as the associate athletic director for finance and facilities before serving in his current role as deputy athletic director. He could be the leading candidate to take over for his boss if the job becomes vacant, TCI has learned.
Radakovich believed in Neff enough to give him his first job in college sports when the two worked together previously at Georgia Tech, Neff’s alma mater. Then the Yellow Jackets’ athletic director, Radakovich brought on Neff, a civil engineering major who’d returned to get his master’s of business administration, to work in the athletic department in 2008.
“He’s just a rising star,” Radakovich told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution a few years back. “There’s no other way around it.”
People in and around Clemson’s athletic department have sang Neff’s praises in recent years. As one Clemson coach put it to TCI, “Graham’s relationship with everyone is great. He invests in people.”
Other schools have liked him, too. Neff, who’s still in his late 30s, worked in senior administrative roles at Middle Tennessee State before Radakovich hired him again at Clemson, where, as the titles indicate, Neff has done a little bit of everything.
He spends a lot of time with football and men’s basketball teams as the supervisor of those sports, but he’s also helped develop other aspects of the athletic department, including fundraising, student-athlete welfare and external operations management. Neff has overseen more than $200 million in capital projects during his eight years at Clemson and has even helped negotiate lucrative contracts.
Named a “Power Player” among college athletics administrators by Sports Business Journal in 2019, Neff has been groomed for the opportunity to run his own athletic department at some point. Might that time be not far off?
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