Drew Ingraham Joins Ole Miss Athletics Administration

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss has strengthened its athletics leadership team by adding Drew Ingraham as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Engagement, it was announced Wednesday by Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Keith Carter.

Ingraham brings two decades of external leadership experience at the collegiate level, highlighted by successful stints at Furman and Texas Tech. He arrives in Oxford after spending the 2024-25 season as Delaware State’s Deputy Athletics Director.

“Drew has a great track record of guiding successful external units, and we’re excited to welcome his experience and expertise to our administrative team,” Carter said. “Enhancing the fan experience remains a top priority at Ole Miss, and we look forward to seeing Drew’s impact as a leader and innovator.”

“I’m incredibly honored and grateful for the opportunity to join Ole Miss Athletics,” said Ingraham. “I want to thank Eric Wood and Keith Carter for entrusting me with the chance to lead such a dynamic and talented external team. I’m excited to serve our student-athletes, coaches, staff and the entire Ole Miss community as we continue to build on a tradition of excellence.”

In his season at DSU, Ingraham provided oversight of external facing areas and game day operations while assisting with capital projects and athletic facilities transformations. That stop was preceded by two years as Furman’s Senior Associate A.D. for External Affairs and Revenue Generation, overseeing all marketing, ticketing, communications and creative services.

During Ingraham’s time with Furman, the Paladins saw significant ticket sales growth, resulting in a 31 percent increase in football season ticket revenue, with an overall growth of total football ticket revenue by 21 percent. Additionally, he guided efforts resulting in a total ticket revenue boost of 45 percent for men’s basketball and 21 percent for women’s basketball.  

Ingram directed the planning and implementation of a social media growth campaign that yielded a 27 percent increase in Facebook engagement, 18 percent growth in Instagram engagement and a 62 percent rise in X engagement for the Furman main accounts.  

Active in the Paladins’ capital projects, Ingraham served on the $40 million Timmons Arena renovation committee and oversaw capital improvement projects for both men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms and offices. He managed the expansion of premium seating renovation at Paladin Stadium and was the project manager for capital improvement projects at the Mickel Tennis Center that included complete locker room renovations, court resurfacing and installation of streaming service to all 16 courts.  

Ingraham also enhanced Furman’s third-party partnerships and support by negotiating a ticket office management and outbound ticket sales agreement with Taymar Sales U; spearheaded the service contract, service agreement and implementation of Ticketmaster; and negotiated the extension with the Paladin’s flagship radio partner, The Fan Upstate of Audacy, Inc. Additionally, Ingraham was the liaison and director of fulfillment for Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment, Furman Athletics’ multimedia rights holder.

Administratively, Ingraham held sports supervision for men’s basketball (2023 NCAA Tournament participant), women’s basketball, women’s tennis (2022 Southern Conference champion) and men’s tennis.

Ingraham worked at Texas Tech from 2018-22 as Associate A.D. where he oversaw three operations within the athletics department — communications, creative services and promotions & fan engagement — with a combined staff of 16 full-time employees. He coordinated the planning and execution of Red Raider football and men’s basketball game days, as well as year-round promotional efforts for all 17 programs.

Ingraham directed marketing efforts in football that generated $16.7 million in revenue for the 2018 and 2019 seasons and constructed and implemented marketing and ticket sales plans that added 8,837 new season ticket accounts over those two campaigns.

Ingraham led marketing and outreach strategies for Chris Beard’s Red Raider basketball program and that netted a 12 percent increase in student attendance and a 16 percent hike in overall attendance during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, averaging 14,057 fans in the latter. For the 2021-22 campaign, Texas Tech netted a program record 8,150 season ticket holders. Ingraham also crafted marketing and sales strategies that correlated in a four-year, season ticket sellout for Red Raider baseball.

A member of Texas Tech’s senior athletics team as well as the department’s “Beyond Verified” committee overseeing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), Ingraham played a central role in the tremendous growth in Texas Tech’s social media accounts that topped 1.3 million combined followers, including the fifth highest TikTok college athletics account in the nation at the time with over 100,000 followers. Through his social media initiatives, the Red Raiders netted over eight million interactions and almost 30 million video views across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

In addition, he managed Texas Tech’s Athletics strategic fundraising relationship with CaringCent College Athletics.

Prior to his term in Lubbock, Ingraham served as Associate A.D. for Marketing and Fan Engagement at the University of New Mexico from 2014-17, where he was heavily involved in all aspects of ticket sales, marketing and social media strategy and execution. 

Ingraham also spent more than six years (2007-13) as Associate A.D. for Marketing and Operations at Montana State in his hometown of Bozeman. He began his collegiate administrative career as an external athletics marketing manager at Colorado College in 2005.

Ingraham majored in English and secondary education at Boston College, from which he earned his bachelor’s degree in 2001. He added a master’s in physical education/sports administration from Springfield (Mass.) College in 2004. He is also a 2017 graduate of the Sports Management Institute as well as a 2024 member of the NACDA Senior Administrators Mentoring Institute.

Ingraham and his wife Elaina share a daughter Avery and a son Zeke.