BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University's Vice President and Director of Athletics Jeff O'Malley has guided the most improved athletics department over the past three seasons announced AD Advantage officials. The ranking comes by grading athletic directors over the department's overall improvement in the sports of football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball and women's volleyball. To be considered for the poll, a school had to sponsor at least five of those six sports.
 
"This all starts at the top with the vision of University President Dr. Jaime Taylor," said O'Malley. "His leadership makes this all possible. There are a lot of people that are involved to help make this type of success a reality from quality head coaches who have identified the right talent both in the classroom and competition arena, our external staff, academics staff, compliance, strength and conditioning and of course our athletic training and nutrition staff. When you have all those elements coming together with a similar focus great things will happen."
 
Over the course of the past three seasons, LU has produced a .561 winning percentage in those sports which is a 20.3 percent improvement from the previous four seasons. The sports that made the biggest jumps were football (+28.9) and softball (+27.6). Three of Lamar's teams witnessed an improvement by at least 20 percentage points with women's basketball being the third.
 
The list was created with four factors – Athletic Directors must have led the same Division I institution for at least three years, must sponsor five of the six sports listed above, the previous three seasons were compared against the prior four-year baseline for each sport and the ranking comes from the change in the composite evenly-weighted win percentage (with equal weight given to each sport).
 
Lamar has reached historic heights over the course of O'Malley's four years in the Golden Triangle. The Cardinals won five of the nine Southland Conference all-sports trophies handed out over a three-year stretch which included a women's all-sports trophy and back-to-back men's all-sports trophies and Commissioner's Cups. High praise for an overall program that had never won a Commissioner's Cup and just one men's all-sports trophy all-time prior to O'Malley's arrival.
 
In addition to the overall department, individual sports have achieved historic levels of success during the past three seasons with four sports landing in the top 25 including football, baseball, soccer and women's basketball (CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Top 25 poll). The football program ended the 2025 season by making its second NCAA FCS Playoff appearance and finished the year ranked in the top 25 for the first time in program history. Football, baseball and soccer have each made NCAA Championship appearances during that time along with athletes from cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field.
 
While the volleyball team hasn't seen the success on a national level yet, second-year head coach Ariel Apolinario has placed the Red and White back in the conversation. Lamar has recorded back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2008 and 2009 and advanced to the SLC Championship tournament in consecutive years for the first time since 2010 and 2011.
 
"The past three seasons have been an exciting time for everyone involved with Lamar, but I'm looking forward to the future," said O'Malley. "I believe we have positioned this department for even bigger things to come."