Terry Prentice, Razorbacks’ senior associate AD, leaves for SEC rival

Mississippi State University has hired Terry Prentice as deputy athletics director. According to a news release, he will also be general manager of student-athlete brand services and business development. He’ll start the job Sept. 11.

Prentice joined the University of Arkansas athletics department in March 2021 as a senior associate athletics director to oversee athlete brand development.

“Terry is an outstanding addition to the elite executive cabinet we have been building over the last seven months,” Mississippi State athletics director Zac Selmon said. “Terry is innovative, hardworking and an outstanding connector with student-athletes and stakeholders. He is nationally known as a leader in the NIL space and a pioneer in the modern era of college athletics.”

According to the release, Prentice will oversee the newly formed “Bulldog Athlete Services” unit for holistic student-athlete development.

“It’s an honor to join the Mississippi State Family and work alongside Zac Selmon and a talented team of coaches and staff,” Prentice said in the MSU news release. “As a student-athlete and administrator within the SEC, I’ve admired and appreciated the history and tradition of Mississippi State Athletics. I look forward to helping create world-class experiences for our student-athletes. We are thrilled to embrace the Starkville community.”

In March 2021, Prentice, a former Razorback track star, accepted a job offer from Hunter Yurachek to join the UA athletics department as a senior associate athletics director to oversee athlete brand development. His job began four months before the NCAA’s landmark decision opened the doors for college athletes to start profiting from their name, image and likeness (NIL) while maintaining their eligibility.

Yurachek, the university’s athletics director, said the UA was the first athletic department to create a senior-level administrator position with that specific focus.

“He [Prentice] goes about his day very business-like with a very calm demeanor,” Yurachek said. “There are very few days you don’t see him with a smile on his face.”

Prentice, 34, began his career in fundraising with the Razorback Foundation (2014-2018) and the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation (2014) at the University of Mississippi. Before returning to Fayetteville, he was an associate athletics director at the University of Kansas (2018-2021), working for former UA athletics director Jeff Long.