Boston College Athletics Director Blake James Signs Two-Year Contract Extension

Boston College William V. Campbell Director of Athletics Blake James has received a two-year contract extension that will take him through the 2031 season with the university, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported on Thursday morning.

Sources: Boston College athletic director Blake James has received a two-year contract extension, which will bring him through 2031. He’s been the AD at BC since July of 2022. He’s the former AD at Miami and Maine. pic.twitter.com/hGcWDMS8gn
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 3, 2026

James was hired by the university in June 2022 and assumed the role of AD on July 1 of that year, succeeding Patrick Kraft, who left BC to become the AD at Penn State.

James has dealt with a fair amount of change since his arrival, notably hiring a new football coach in Bill O’Brien to replace Jeff Hafley, who left for an NFL defensive coordinator position, in the offseason leading up to 2023, as well as a new men’s and women’s basketball coach following the teams’ 2025-26 campaigns, respectively.

On the men’s front, James brought in former UConn men’s basketball assistant coach Luke Murray to take over for former head coach Earl Grant, who went 23-39 over his final two seasons with four conference wins in each, which both ranked lowest in the conference and resulted in the Eagles failing to make the ACC Tournament two seasons in a row.

Murray was on the Huskies’ staff for their back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024 under legendary head coach Dan Hurley, who has praised BC’s new skipper, in particular, for playing a major role in manufacturing the program’s offensive system.

Murray followed Hurley at several stops before the two arrived together in Storrs, Conn., including Rhode Island from 2013-15 and Wagner from 2010-11.

For the women’s team, James hired Kate Popovec-Goss, who was previously the head coach at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., where she served a four-year stint.

During Popovec-Goss’ tenure at Bradley, she improved the Braves' win total from four wins in 2022-23 to 20 wins this past season and earned a WNIT bid — only the second postseason appearance in program history.

Another head coaching change that occurred during James’ tenure happened recently, as former head coach Bob Thompson stepped down from his position on Aug. 3 and was replaced by one of his assistants, Francesco D’Agostino.

James’ contract extension also comes in the wake of a new leadership change for the university, as Fr. John T. “Jack” Butler, S.J., officially started his term as Boston College’s 26th president on July 31. He succeeded Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., who served a 30-year tenure.

After the Boston College football program wrapped up practice on Thursday, O’Brien spoke on the extension and what it does for the athletics department as a whole.

"I think it's great,” O’Brien, who is the university’s highest-paid employee, said. “It's great for Blake, it's great for the athletic department, you know, the stability. It's huge to be a stable athletic department and not changing leadership every three or four years."

"I think it's great that we have that, and I think we're all kind of working and we're all on the same page with what it looks like right now and what it could look like in the future. But yeah, just congratulations to Blake."

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