Austin Peay is content to keep playing FCS football.
New athletic director Jordan Harmon, who was officially introduced on Feb. 13 at F&M Bank Arena, said that the school is open to a potential move to FBS, but its main priority is to “be the best we can possibly be where we are right now.”
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“If the phone rings for the FBS, we can make a decision on what that looks like, or we can stay and continue to be great at the FCS level,” Harmon said. “My goal is not going to focus on one versus the other. It’s to be really great at where our feet are.”
Jordan Harmon, Austin Peay’s new Athletic Director, speaks as he is introduced at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tenn., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026.
Harmon’s predecessor, Gerald Harrison, first introduced the idea of the Governors moving to FBS in December 2022. Harrison outlined the early stages of a plan that would have seen APSU make the jump from FCS by the 2025 season.
Such a plan would have involved a large financial commitment, including 22 new football scholarships. That commitment became larger in October 2023 when the NCAA Division I Council passed a rule change that requires FCS schools to pay $5 million (up from the previous $5,000 transition fee) and offer 210 scholarships across all sports, totaling at least $6 million, in order to move to FBS.
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As recently as August 2023, after the increased transition fee had been publicly proposed, Harrison reaffirmed APSU’s commitment to go to FBS. However, Harrison departed in July 2025 to become the athletic director at Marshall, after which Harmon took over as the interim AD.
Austin Peay’s conference situation added more complications. The Governors are members of the Atlantic Sun in every sport but football, which plays in the United Athletic Conference, a merger of football-playing schools from the ASUN and Western Athletic Conference.
When the UAC was first formed, it did so with the intention of moving to FBS as an entire conference, which would have been unprecedented in NCAA history. Those plans failed to materialize, however.
In July 2026, Austin Peay is scheduled to leave the ASUN to join the UAC, which will become a multi-sport conference including current ASUN members Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama and West Georgia and WAC members Abilene Christian and Tarleton State.
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The ASUN will continue to exist and form a “strategic partnership” with the new UAC.
“I’m energized by it, not only the UAC but the ASUN consortium overall,” Harmon said. “It puts our conference and our university in a great position to be nationally and regionally recognized. It gives us the ability to be really successful and compete at a very high level, and continue to generate revenue for the university.”
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Jordan Harmon, Austin Peay’s new Athletic Director, speaks as he is introduced at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tenn., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026.
Jordan Harmon one of youngest athletic directors in nation
Harmon was a pitcher for the Austin Peay baseball from 2014-17 and worked in the University Advancement office after graduating. He joined the athletic department in 2020 as assistant director of athletics for development, and after working at Bishop Verot Catholic High School in Florida for a year, he returned to APSU in 2024 as deputy director of athletics and chief revenue officer.
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“This is home for me and my family,” he said. “Austin Peay gave me a chance. First person in my family to go to college, got to play baseball, got degrees, met my wife, got a career. We have a family now. The five guys that stood next to us at our wedding day were because of Austin Peay, and that’s when I knew. This place gave me a lot. (I’m) in a position now to be able to give back even more.”
At 31, Harmon is one of the youngest athletic directors in the country. Having worked extensively in fundraising, including contributing to Austin Peay’s most successful fundraising period in history ($6.35 million from 2018-20), he feels equipped to lead the department in an era dominated by Name, Image and Likeness.
“Revenue is so important,” Harmon said. “It’s vastly important. Our student-athlete experience, as you guys hear me talk about, is our priority, but you can’t do that without money. So to be able to go fundraise and generate revenue and find new streams of it is of the utmost importance, and I’m thankful to have a background in it, but I’ve got a lot of people on our staff that can do it really well.”
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on X/Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Is Austin Peay still trying to move to FBS football? What new AD said
