FIU Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia will resign

Per multiple sources, Florida International Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia will announce his resignation from the position and will not finish out the remainder of his contract. Garcia’s contract had been set to expire on July 31, 2022 — a COVID-related extension from the contract’s original end date of July 31, 2021.

The 60-year-old Garcia has been with FIU in his current position since 2006 and has overseen the hires of every current head coach in athletics, including football’s Butch Davis and basketball’s Jeremy K. Ballard. Garcia’s tenure has spanned FIU’s move from the Sun Belt Conference to Conference USA in 2013 and each of the football program’s five bowl berths.

However, there have been decisions made under his guidance that have been met with scrutiny, including the hiring of NBA legend Isiah Thomas as men’s basketball coach in 2009, a tenure that lasted only three seasons, along with the dismissal of Mario Cristobal as head coach after leading the program to their first bowl appearances in 2010 and 2011.

Most recently, Garcia oversaw the hiring of Butch Davis as FIU football’s head coach, having worked with Davis at the University of Miami and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. Under Davis, FIU saw unprecedented success, having reached three consecutive bowl appearances for the first time in program history. However, since an upset victory over crosstown rival Miami, the Panthers have gone 1-15, including a winless 2020 and the team hasn’t won an FBS game since the victory over the Hurricanes in November of 2019.