Upcoming Event: Track & Field versus NCAA First Round on May 28, 2026
Track & Field
vs NCAA First Round
The University of Utah Athletics
Liz Abel
Liz Abel, Utah's senior associate athletics director for communications, directs the athletic department's public relations and publicity efforts and manages the new media and broadcast/video divisions. She is also Utah's liaison with the Pac-12 Enterprises.
Abel came to the U. in 1983 as the assistant sports information director and was promoted to associate SID in 1988; becoming the primary media contact for football in 1989. She was appointed sports information director in 1991, and in 2000, was named an assistant athletics director. She was elevated to associate AD in 2004 and has been a senior associate athletics director since 2011.
Abel serves as the communications and information director for the football and gymnastics teams and previously served as the same capacity for women's basketball, volleyball, softball and skiing.
Utah's sports information department received the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) Super 11 award in the first two years it was presented (2009 and 2010). The Super 11 award recognizes 11 sports information departments in NCAA FBS football that "exemplify excellent media relations."
The Greater Salt Lake chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) awarded Abel the Golden Spike Award for "Communicator of the Year" in the state of Utah in 2014.
Abel has been named the Region Gymnastics Administrator of the Year six times by the National Association for Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches. She has won a number of national awards for her sport publications, including two "Best in the Nation" and four second-place designations for her gymnastics media guides.
The Bowling Green, Ohio, native earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Idaho in 1982, where she lettered three years on the basketball team and was a third-team CoSIDA Academic All-American. She was named was the school's Outstanding Journalism Graduate and was the first female recipient of the Fox Memorial Scholarship, awarded to the UI senior athlete with the highest cumulative GPA. She attended Indiana University from 1977-79, where she played basketball her freshman year.
Prior to coming to Utah, Abel was a sports information intern at Missouri in 1982-83.
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