New Iowa State A.D. Jared Benko | The Rush With Travis and Ross | Monday, October 19, 2026

Nothing big was going to happen.

You know, it's like, ah, Cyclones aren't playing.

Hawkeyes aren't playing.

We're going to have a weekend to relax.

Then about 1250, well, it was a little bit earlier, but the official announcement, I think, came about 1215, 1230 from Iowa State that it had hired a new athletic director.

And Jared Benko is going to be introduced today, I think, at 10 o'clock.

It's not open to the public.

It's for media only.

But Jared Benko comes to Iowa State from Auburn.

I would say probably not a name that was on the list.

And not that you saw a lot of lists flying around out there.

But, you know, the South Dakota State AD came up.

The North Dakota State AD came up.

This seems to be a strategic move.

By President Cook, when you look at the landscape of college athletics today, in that at Auburn, he was in charge of basically the NIL and raising money where he raised like $230, $240 million for Auburn since he went back.

I don't know if you had much time over the weekend to research Jared Benko.

There's not much out there about him.

Interesting

hire.

It's funny because I was going to say, yeah, I tried.

There's not a lot out there.

There's not.

Not that there's nothing out there that you can find out about the guy.

I don't know, Travis.

I've said this for a very long time that, first of all, you could have put the list of names in front of me.

Nothing big was going to happen.

You know, it's like, ah, Cyclones aren't playing.

Hawkeyes aren't playing.

We're going to have a weekend to relax.

Then about 1250, well, it was a little bit earlier, but the official announcement, I think, came about 1215, 1230 from Iowa State that it had hired a new athletic director.

And Jared Benko is going to be introduced today, I think, at 10 o'clock.

It's not open to the public.

It's for media only.

But Jared Benko comes to Iowa State from Auburn.

I would say probably not a name that was on the list.

And not that you saw a lot of lists flying around out there.

But, you know, the South Dakota State AD came up.

The North Dakota State AD came up.

This seems to be a strategic move.

By President Cook, when you look at the landscape of college athletics today, in that at Auburn, he was in charge of basically the NIL and raising money where he raised like $230, $240 million for Auburn since he went back.

I don't know if you had much time over the weekend to research Jared Benko.

There's not much out there about him.

Interesting

hire.

It's funny because I was going to say, yeah, I tried.

There's not a lot out there.

There's not.

Not that there's nothing out there that you can find out about the guy.

I don't know, Travis.

I've said this for a very long time that, first of all, you could have put the list of names in front of me.