UC San Diego Athletics introduced Andy Fee, the fourth director of athletics in UCSD history, in a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 23. Fee, who joins from Seattle, assumed his new position on Sept. 15.
The news of Fee’s hiring broke in early September, shortly after UCSD announced that the Tritons will leave the Big West for the West Coast Conference ahead of the 2027-28 season.
“When we were recruiting Andy, we were already in conversations with the West Coast Conference to move there,” Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said. “And here I’m sitting recruiting Andy, and I couldn’t tell him that he’s not changing conferences; he’s going to move to the same conference, just a different school.”
Fee is no stranger to conference realignment, with Seattle and Washington moving to the WCC and Big Ten, respectively, during his stints. He expects UCSD’s move to be slightly different because of the school’s relatively recent transition to Division I.
“What I think the biggest piece is — and what we’re really focused on a lot — is the groundswell in our alumni,” Fee said. “We have alums who were here in D-III, D-II, and now those scholars here are part of the Division-I era. So, how do we establish this culture and this identity? So, in some ways, for us, our biggest challenge is really cementing and planting that flag.”
Fee wants to ride the success of last year’s men’s and women’s basketball programs toward the goal of making UCSD the “premier non-football” school in the country. He likened his vision for UCSD Athletics to a three-pronged trident of academic excellence, recruitment and retention of staff and athletes, and Name, Image, and Likeness opportunities.
“This place is simply just too good,” Fee said. “We’ve gotten a little taste of that this past season, this excitement around men’s and women’s basketball and having 20 or 22 of 24 sports participate in the postseason. We’ve got momentum. What we need to do is shape the future, and so many people in this room can have an impact on that, the traditions.”
Fee also highlighted the role of NIL opportunities and the SD Tide Collective in UCSD’s athletic success. The SD Tide Collective, which is unaffiliated with UC San Diego, promises to help raise money for UCSD basketball athletes.
“It fuels our ability to recruit and retain those exceptional scholar athletes,” Fee said. “A major focus of my efforts will be generating new and increased external revenue streams. This revenue growth is essential for fueling Division-I championship level competition and academic excellence.”
Community engagement, in Fee’s view, complements this competitive success. As the student body population grows, Fee wants to get fans more involved in the athletic culture at UCSD, a sentiment Khosla echoed.
“I think it’s fashionable to say ‘UC Socially Dead,’” Khosla added. He proposed an alternative: “Think about ‘UC Socially Dynamic.’”
