USF Athletics

Delaney Ryan was named USF Athletics Vice President of Student-Athlete Development/Senior Woman Administrator in November 2025, and is a member of the CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins’ senior leadership team.

A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., Ryan came to USF after nearly 10 years of service in the athletic department of her alma mater Mercer University in Macon, Ga. Most recently, she served as Assistant Athletics Director for Support Services/Senior Woman Administrator.

During her tenure at Mercer, Ryan was responsible for overseeing seven academic advisors and support specialists who provided academic guidance to MU’s more than 400 student-athletes. She also led the process of developing academic success plans to ensure that all academic goals and requirements were met.
 
In addition to providing academic guidance at Mercer, Ryan was responsible for coordinating all areas of academic support, including monitoring, evaluating, and determining student-athletes’ academic performance for eligibility purposes. Mercer won the Southern Conference’s Barrett-Bonner Award for 10 consecutive years upon joining the conference. The honor is presented to the SoCon institution that places the highest percentage of its student-athletes on the league’s academic honor roll.

Ryan also served as Senior Woman Administrator at Mercer, representing the university in the Southern Conference’s administrative decision-making processes, including reviewing, improving, and implementing conference bylaws and sport regulations. She coordinated the department’s leadership team to ensure strategic alignment, oversaw student-athlete welfare, gender equity and Title IX compliance, and served on various campus committees related to curriculum, scheduling and awards. She also provided sport oversight for the men’s and women’s tennis programs.

Ryan joined Mercer Athletics in 2016 as an administrative assistant and served a variety of key roles for MU over the next four years while pursuing her undergraduate degree. Her duties expanded as a graduate assistant in the department, including stints as a student-athlete academic support specialist and an administrative support role in the department’s daily operations. She also served as an academic advisor for the Bears.

Ryan earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and special education from Mercer and completed her graduate work in higher education leadership at MU.