UVA Athletics is losing an important guy, Tyler Jones, to an ACC rival

Tyler Jones, the wunderkind who was put in charge of overhauling the approach of UVA Athletics toward money, is leaving for a job at Stanford.

At least the timing of this isn’t as bad as it could be, with a couple of months to try to get somebody in place for the start of the next academic sports year in July.

But still, it stings, losing Jones, whose titles at UVA Athletics included the basic, deputy athletics director, and the sensational, chief strategy officer, and the specific, general manager of the UVA Football program.

If you didn’t know the name Tyler Jones, you know what he was responsible for – the infusion of cash into UVA Football, and the construction of a front office resembling that of an NFL franchise, which used the money to great effect in a magical 2025 season that saw Virginia go from a 5-7 season in 2024 to 11 wins in a 2025 campaign that included an appearance in the ACC Championship Game.

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ICYMI: Tyler Jones archives

• UVA Athletics: Tyler Jones named GM for football, women’s basketball
• The focus for UVA Football GM Tyler Jones: ‘Making data-informed decisions’
• How did UVA Football put together a Top 25 transfer class? Speed dating
• UVA Athletics now requiring student-athletes to sign ‘binding’ contracts
• Are college athletes mercenaries? UVA’s Williams, Jones address the question of the day
• UVA Football jumps in ‘with two feet’ on NIL: Competitive, yes, but is it sustainable?

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Jones isn’t a UVA lifer – his undergrad and graduate degrees are from Eastern Michigan, and he worked jobs in sports administration at his alma mater, then Ohio State, Cleveland State and Northwestern before Carla Williams hired him at UVA in 2023.

I’m looking at his new job at Stanford as a step up for him professionally – he will be the athletics program’s chief operating officer.

Really the only logical move from there is to be a Power 4 AD at some point in the next few years.

Gotta take that job, if a Stanford is offering it to you.

Nobody is irreplaceable, but Tyler Jones was an important cog in the UVA Athletics machine.