Florida International will begin a search for a new athletic director after Pete Garcia announced Wednesday that he is resigning to become senior adviser to university president Mark Rosenberg.
Senior associate athletic director Heath Glick has taken over for Garcia, who held the job for 15 years, on an interim basis.
FIU will likely want to move quickly on hiring someone permanently to lead the athletic department -- and decide how go to forward with football coach Butch Davis, who is in the final year of his five-year contract.
The Panthers have gone 1-15 since upsetting Miami 30-24 on Nov. 23, 2019. The lone win in that span was against lower-division Long Island University to open this season. FIU has lost their five Conference USA games this season by a combined 222-97 score.
"I strongly believe that with the new structure in Conference USA, and current changing national landscape in college athletics, this is the right time for FIU to search for a new athletics director who will take FIU athletics to the next level," Garcia said in a message to staff.
Conference USA has seen nine schools leave in recent weeks for other conferences while bringing four other schools into the league to help take those places.