Michael Kelly’s connection to Navy predates his career in athletics. His father, a 1967 Naval Academy graduate, was stationed in Annapolis when he was born. Some of his earliest college sports memories came from watching Navy football. He even applied for the Navy athletic director job the last time it opened up in 2001. But for Kelly, who was hired on Wednesday as Navy’s next athletic director, the appeal of the job is about more than nostalgia.

“This was a situation where it was just the right fit at the right time for me,” Kelly said. “It’s truly been a lifetime aspiration, both from what I observed as a child, through my upbringing in the area and professional career. It’s an outstanding athletic director job in and of itself, but it obviously gets involved with a bigger mission.”

But Kelly wasn’t hired because of his Navy roots. He was hired because, in the words of outgoing athletic director Chet Gladchuk, “there was no one that came closer to being right on the philosophical target.”

“We interviewed Michael Kelly a number of times and were extremely impressed,” Gladchuk said. “His résumé and his accomplishments, his involvement not only at USF but nationally, are just extraordinary.”

That résumé is hard to argue with. While in Tampa, he built a strong reputation as a fundraiser. He led the effort to build an on-campus stadium, with the school’s board of trustees approving the plan in April. He spearheaded capital campaigns for nine major facilities upgrades over the last five years, including a new on-campus football stadium. In 2024, USF raised a record $42 million.

Fundraising success is of vital importance at Navy, which has several capital projects of its own, including a new lacrosse center and enhancements to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. But USF is a very different school from the Naval Academy. Does fundraising success at a large public university serving a major metro area translate to a service academy that’s one of the smallest schools in FBS? Kelly believes it does. In fact, he sees more similarities than differences.

“A lot of the success we’ve had recently in the fundraising arm has really come from great alignment with the university and with a foundation structure,” he said of his time at USF. “My observation is that it’s very similar, more than you might expect, to the Naval Academy.”

That alignment between the Alumni Association, the Foundation, and the athletic department is something that Kelly both respected and emulated.

“The fundraising strategy that I admired from afar at the Naval Academy, it’s something similar to what we’ve adopted here at USF over the last couple of years in terms of the alignment between the general university foundation and athletics,” he said.

Having the stability of reliable fundraising infrastructure already in place is an advantage for Kelly as he sets about navigating Navy’s place in a rapidly changing college athletics model. The House settlement was just approved, which will overhaul the NIL framework (or lack thereof) for schools and athletes across the NCAA. College Football Playoff expansion is also on the horizon. Fortunately, Kelly understands these changes as well as anyone.

“I’ve served on the NIL task force. I’ve served on the Division I Council. I’m working on a doctorate that deals with the current disruption in college sports,” he said. “It’s a fascinating time.”

At USF, Kelly used that insight to put his school ahead of the curve. He established a dedicated NIL Strategy Unit and hired one of the first GM/AGM duos in the country to manage NIL support. NIL isn’t a factor at Navy, but Kelly believes the program can still get ahead by focusing on the kinds of strengths other schools are starting to lose.

“It’s not coincidental to me that in a year of disruption, Navy and Army each won 10 games, went to bowl games, and won them,” he said. “It speaks to player development, continuity, retention, and leadership. Those are now competitive advantages.”

Kelly believes Navy can establish a distinct identity of stability through recruiting and developing high school talent that contrasts power-conference programs leaning on transfers and NIL bidding wars.

“I love the whole player development concept,” he said. “If they stay committed to their training and coachability, they have a much greater chance of becoming the starter they envision versus being supplanted by someone that slides in at the last minute in the free agency era.”

That identity aligns with the Naval Academy’s mission, which mandates physical development. The emphasis on physical development is also a primary reason why the school has one of the largest athletic departments in the country. Supporting so many sports as part of the broader physical mission is a point of pride.

“In an era where people are cutting sports, the Naval Academy offers 36 varsity teams and 15 club sports,” Kelly said. “That’s amazing. It’s all part of the physical mission, and it appeals to me.”

Kelly also spoke with appreciation for the coaches and administrators who have similarly bought into the mission and made long-term commitments to Navy athletics, crediting Gladchuk’s vision and leadership for the program’s stability.

“When you see coaches that could probably be successful anywhere choose to stay at Navy, it tells you something,” Kelly said. “They believe in the mission. They buy into the long game, not just what happens in the next four years, but what happens for a lifetime.”

That long-term outlook applies to Kelly, too. He called the Navy job a “lifetime aspiration” and said he’s never applied for another job since returning to USF in 2018. Now, 24 years after first applying to be Navy’s athletic director, the job is his. And with several major projects already underway, he’s glad Gladchuk will still be around to help.

“You can’t be building the kind of things that are being built at the Naval Academy and just suddenly leave things hanging,” Kelly said. “To be able to learn from [Chet], be able to adjust as we fly, is really, really important.”