| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Athletic director |
| Team | BYU |
| Conference | Big 12 Conference |
| Biographical details | |
| Alma mater | Fresno State University (BS) Brigham Young University (MBA) |
| Playing career | |
| Basketball | |
| 1992–1994 | Fresno State |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 2017–2025 | BYU (deputy athletic director) |
| 2025–present | BYU |
Brian Santiago is an American college athletics administrator and former collegiate basketball player. He is the athletic director at Brigham Young University, a position he has held since 2025. Santiago played college basketball for Fresno State University. [1]
Santiago graduated from Provo High School in 1988, where he was an all-state player on the 1987 state championship basketball team. [2] He played both basketball and baseball at Utah Valley, earning All-Conference and All-Region honors in both sports. He then transferred to Fresno State, where he led the Western Athletic Conference in assists and three-point shooting percentage, finishing second nationally in three-point percentage at 50%.
After college, he played professionally for three years with the Arecibo Capitanes in Puerto Rico's Superior Basketball League and was named to the Puerto Rico national team’s pre-selection Olympic roster.
Santiago earned an A.S. in accounting from Utah Valley, a B.S. in business administration with an emphasis in international business from Fresno State in 1995, and an MBA from BYU's Marriott School of Management in 2001.
Santiago joined BYU's athletic department in 1997 as a member of the men's basketball coaching staff under head coach Steve Cleveland. In 2001, he transitioned into an administrative role. He was promoted to senior associate athletic director in 2008 and later served as deputy athletic director beginning in 2017.
In May 2025, Santiago was appointed as the university's new athletic director, succeeding Tom Holmoe. His appointment followed a national search led by BYU president C. Shane Reese, who reportedly interviewed over 50 candidates. [3] [4]
At the press conference announcing his appointment, Santiago addressed concerns about his leadership style and acknowledged that he had grown since his early years at BYU. He invited the campus community to engage with him and get to know him better, emphasizing that he is no longer the same person he was 27 years ago.
Santiago served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Dominican Republic. He is married to the former Kimberly Blackburn. They have four children: McKay, Colson, Jaxon, and Whitney.