Burman Recognized for Focus on Academics, Facility Upgrades and Fundraising

University of Wyoming

Laramie, Wyo.– University of Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman has been named by SB Nation as one of the top five athletic directors in the nation in the Group of Five conferences. This week, SB Nation, through its “Underdog Dynasty” page, ranked its top five athletic directors from the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Sun Belt Conference and Mountain West Conference.

Burman was recognized for overseeing over $100 million in facilities projects during his time as Wyoming’s athletic director. Included in those facilities projects was the $30 million renovation of the Arena-Auditorium, which saw the Wyoming Cowboy basketball team enjoy one of its best seasons in recent history, winning the 2015 Mountain West Tournament Championship and earning a bid to last year’s NCAA Tournament.

He was praised for the recently-announced $44 million Mick and Susie McMurry High Altitude Performance Center, which will serve the academic, nutritional and strength and conditioning needs of all 17 UW sports teams.

It was also highlighted in the story the increased resources that have been dedicated to UW student-athletes’ academic success under Burman’s direction. Those additional resources helped 233 student-athletes over 63 different academic majors achieve a 3.00 or better grade-point average for the 2015 spring semester. Of that group, 131 achieved a 3.50 or better spring semester GPA and 43 earned perfect 4.00 GPAs.

SB Nation is one of the top sports sites on the web. It has been praised by the likes of Forbes, which described SB Nation as,“Who’s doing it right? It’s a simple answer: SB Nation – marrying talent and technology.” Time Inc. ranked SB Nation among its Top 50 Websites.