David Benedict is the athletic director at the University of Connecticut. Under his aegis, UConn won consecutive men's NCAA basketball championships in 2023 and 2024, and the women's championship in 2025.
Benedict is a native of Tempe, Arizona. He had his start in sports as a ball boy for Mesa Community College (MCC) football team in Mesa, Arizona, where his father coached. After high school he played center and linebacker at MCC, after his father had left the program. A 1995 graduate of Southern Utah University, he played linebacker on the football team. He graduated with a degree in physical education, and obtained a master's degree in sports management from New Mexico Highlands in 1996, where he was a graduate assistant football coach.
Benedict got his start in sports management in 1996 at Arizona State University. He was initially hired for only a single task, organizing the event dedicating and naming the football field for former coach Frank Kush. He impressed a top administrator and was offered a position. His first role there was as a "gofer...at the very bottom of the ranks." There until 2006, he advanced to being associate director of development and executive director of the fundraising Sun Angels Foundation. He left ASU to become assistant AD at Long Beach State; this was followed by a short detour into healthcare at Scottsdale Health Foundation. Returning to sports management in 2010, he was associate AD at VCU, overseeing fundraising and "development operations." In 2012 he became interim AD, leading the school's transition from the Colonial League to the Atlantic 10. This was followed by stints of two years each at Auburn University, where he was COO of the athletics department, and University of Minnesota. At Auburn, he was closely involved in interviewing and then hiring Bruce Pearl as basketball coach.
In 2016 he was appointed AD at UConn; his time there has been "highly successful."
His wife, Lisa, was a two-time NCAA champion and four-time All-American gymnast at ASU; they have twin sons. His father, Allen, played football under Frank Kush at ASU and was a longtime football coach at Tempe High School and Mesa Community College before he got into athletic administration.