Chris Del Conte

Chris Del Conte (born June 19, 1968) is an American college athletics administrator. He is the athletic director at the University of Texas at Austin, a position he has held since 2017. Del Conte served as the athletic director at Rice University from 2006 to 2009 and Texas Christian University (TCU) from 2009 to 2017. Under Del Conte, Texas has won the NACDA Directors' Cup as the nation's top performing athletic department in the 2020-21, 2021-22, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.

Early life and education Del Conte was born on June 19, 1968, in Cuernavaca, Mexico. His parents met while working at an orphanage in Mexico and would later relocate the family to Taos, New Mexico, and start a children's home. He also held the title of director of the Mustang Athletic Fund before departing in September 1998 for the Washington State Cougars.

Del Conte joined Washington State as the director of the Cougar Club.

At the University of Arizona, Del Conte led fundraising for the Wildcats. He served as a member of the Wildcats' search committee for a new football head coach in December 2000 when Dick Tomey resigned. His fundraising efforts were credited with the athletics department becoming financially independent for the first time in the university's history. He was also instrumental in the creation of the $14 million Lynch Pavilion expansion at the McKale Center, and expansions to the men's and women's basketball practice facility and the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center.

On May 22, 2024, Del Conte won the Sports Business Journal's 2024 Athletic Director of the Year award.