Member Profile - Mary McElroy

ATLANTA -- Mary McElroy said she was not surprised that her first question when introduced Thursday as Georgia State's new director of intercollegiate athletics was about football -- even though the Panthers don't have a football program.

With Georgia State's move to the Colonial Athletic Association becoming effective Friday, football has gained momentum as a potential new sport at the downtown Atlanta university.

The CAA will begin playing football in 2007. Another CAA member, Old Dominion, is looking to add football in 2009. Georgia State is moving out of the Atlantic Sun Conference, which does not play football. 

"It seems that football has been in the press lately here," said McElroy, who comes to Georgia State from Georgia Tech, where she is the senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator.

McElroy will assume her new role at Georgia State on July 18.

Georgia State chose McElroy over two other finalists -- Brian Colleary, athletic director at Duquesne University, and former Tulane and Miami basketball coach Perry Clark.

McElroy said she will organize a feasibility study "and see if adding football is something Georgia State will pursue as a strategy."

Georgia State University president Carl Patton said football was not a major factor in the decision to hire McElroy.

"We wanted someone who could take the entire program to a different level," Patton said.

Patton said Georgia State first must find a way to build more support for its current sports.

"We've tried everything to get people out, and that is our major challenge," Patton said.

McElroy said she will work to market the sports "and get some of the student groups excited about our sports."

"Once that excitement builds, it will catch on with alumni, as well," she said.

McElroy, a native of Great Mills, Md., earned a bachelor of science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987 and completed her master's degree in management at Georgia Tech in 2000.

Before serving as Tech's senior associate athletic director, McElroy was the school's director of compliance.