- Southern Utah named Myndee Kay Larsen its athletic director in May, with a July start — bringing 17 years of Summit League experience back to Cedar City in the same month the Thunderbirds returned to the Big Sky.
- This story sits inside Utah's olympic sports lane and connects to the larger statewide sports picture.
- The story is backed by 2 sources and a visible last-verified date.
July 28, 2026
September 8, 2026
4 min / 846 words
2 official links
Southern Utah has two major July changes on the same calendar: the Thunderbirds returned to the Big Sky Conference, and Myndee Kay Larsen is scheduled to begin as the department's athletic director. Larsen's appointment followed a national search and names a Southern Utah graduate, former basketball player and former interim athletic director to lead the department as the 2026-27 year opens.
Southern Utah announced Larsen's selection on May 15 and said she would start in July. Her arrival is an administrative story with an on-field clock attached. The school says 14 Thunderbird programs returned to the Big Sky on July 1, while women's gymnastics began Pac-12 affiliate membership that same day.
Myndee Kay Larsen returns to Southern Utah with Summit League experience
Before accepting the Cedar City position, Larsen served as deputy commissioner of The Summit League. Southern Utah says she spent 17 years with the conference and also served as its interim commissioner from October 2021 through March 2022.
Her ties to the school are not ceremonial. Larsen graduated summa cum laude from Southern Utah in 1998 with a communication degree. She then served as an assistant women's basketball coach from 1998 to 2001, taught communication courses at the university and previously held the interim athletic-director role in 2005-06.
The university also says Larsen served on Southern Utah's Board of Trustees and as president of the SUU National Alumni Council. Those roles kept her connected to campus after her first administrative stint ended.
The combination is unusual. Larsen has been a Southern Utah student-athlete, an assistant coach, a classroom instructor, an interim athletic director, a trustee and an alumni council president, and she spent the years between running a Division I conference office. Most athletic-director hires bring one or two of those vantage points. She arrives with the department's own history and the view from the league side of the table.
Southern Utah President Mindy Benson said Larsen brought "a clear vision for the future of Thunderbirds Athletics" in the school's announcement. The release also identifies long-term student-athlete support and relationship-building as part of the mandate.
The new AD was already a record-setting Thunderbird
Larsen's basketball résumé is part of why the return reads differently from an outside hire. She is the first women's basketball player in Southern Utah history to have her jersey retired, according to the university's announcement.
The school lists her as the program's career leader in field-goal percentage at .632 and blocks at 251. It also says she holds the NCAA record for single-season field-goal percentage, .724. Those numbers anchor her connection to the program in a way few athletic directors can claim.
Her prior administrative work at Southern Utah adds another layer. The 2005-06 interim role came before her long Summit League tenure, giving Larsen experience on both sides of the job: a campus department and a Division I conference office.
Southern Utah's July 1 conference change is the first live checkpoint
Larsen's first month coincides with Southern Utah's return to the Big Sky after 10 seasons away. In its July 1 release, the department said football, men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, indoor and outdoor track and field, soccer, softball and volleyball are among the programs competing for Big Sky championships in 2026-27.
Women's gymnastics is on a separate path. The Flippin' Birds became Pac-12 affiliates on July 1, and Southern Utah identifies the program as one of four gymnastics members. The department therefore enters 2026-27 split across two conferences.
Southern Utah's own July 1 message calls the conference changes a return to regional rivalries with Weber State, Northern Arizona, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State and Utah Tech. Two of those, Weber State and Utah Tech, are in-state — fixtures that used to be scheduling choices and now carry conference standings.
The handover
Southern Utah's July 1 athletics release still identified Tom Higbee as interim athletic director, which puts the transition inside the same month as the conference change. Larsen takes over a department that moved 14 programs into the Big Sky and one into a Pac-12 affiliation on a single day.
The scale of that is worth stating plainly. Almost every Southern Utah team changed conference at once, which means new travel, new opponents, new championship formats and new scheduling partners across the whole department in one academic year. It is the largest structural change a Southern Utah athletic director has inherited in a decade.
That is the job as it stands: a former Thunderbird player and administrator leading the department through the first year of a new conference map.
Key facts:
- Athletic director: Myndee Kay Larsen
- Appointment announced: May 15, 2026, following a national search
- Scheduled start window: July 2026
- Previous role: Deputy commissioner of The Summit League; interim commissioner from October 2021 to March 2022
- Southern Utah connection: 1998 graduate, former assistant women's basketball coach and interim athletic director
- Conference context: Southern Utah returned to the Big Sky on July 1, 2026; women's gymnastics joined the Pac-12 as an affiliate
- Interim before her: Southern Utah's July 1 release named Tom Higbee as interim athletic director
