California State University – Northridge has appointed Michael Izzi as its new athletic director, CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison announced Monday. Izzi was most recently the athletic director at University of California Irvine. He will take over the new position this month and will be responsible for CSUN’s NCAA Division I athletic program. “CSUN athletics is a powerful vehicle for engagement — with our students, with our more than 350,000 alumni and with our community,” Harrison said in a statement. “I warmly welcome Michael to CSUN and eagerly anticipate his leadership for our athletic programs.” Izzi replaces former CSUN athletic director Brandon Martin, who was let go in March. Martin’s tenure included implications of an academic fraud scandal in 2016 in which CSUN received three years of probation and a self-imposed postseason ban in 2015. The scandal involved cheating from former players and led to the firing of former Director of Basketball Operations Lior Schwartzberg. Izzi was selected by the university following a nationwide search. Former University of Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson has been serving as CSUN’s interim athletic airector since the beginning of May.
