As an example, Lopiano used the cases of Hermann and Barbour. Since both of those positions were filled in the wake of scandals — the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case at Penn State and the Mike Rice player abuse case at Rutgers — the decision-makers weren’t the usual bunch, Lopiano said, but instead more well-rounded groups that were no doubt more open to nontraditional solutions.

And look what happened: Both universities chose women.

But diversifying the selection process is not the only key to women grabbing those top jobs, said Yow, a former women’s basketball coach who has been North Carolina State’s athletic director since 2010 after 16 years in that post at Maryland.

There are steps women can take to increase their chances at rising through the ranks. Yow said women should try to start at small colleges — the smaller, the better. Be a winning coach there. Land that first administrative job where you supervise both men and women, and then hire winning coaches, as Yow did with Charlie Spoonhour at St. Louis.

Image Chris Plonsky, the Longhorns’ athletic director for women’s sports for 14 years, was bypassed as an interim replacement. Credit... Donald Traill/Associated Press, for JetBlue

Show that you’re willing to work harder and longer than anyone else, because the depressing fact is that you will have to do so as a woman. And don’t shy away from the question you know search committees might be thinking about.

When she was applying at Maryland, Yow said, she knew committee members might have concerns about her commitment, so she raised them herself. She told the committee whom she was married to, that they had no children and that they weren’t planning to have any at that time. If she had had children, she said, she would have explained what kind of child care she had in place.

“In a perfect world, we shouldn’t have to explain that, but this is how it works for real,” Yow said. “If you want to overcome that barrier, here’s a strategy: Wipe that question mark right out of their heads.”