Former UAB Athletics Director Brian Mackin, who resigned that position in the wake of the university's 2014 decision to shut down its football program, is returning to intercollegiate athletics as the Blazers prepare to return to the football field this fall. Mackin has been named deputy commissioner of Conference USA.

UAB is an original member of C-USA so Mackin will work with his alma mater and former employer in a different capacity. He'll be a member of the conference's senior staff and work with C-USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod, who was promoted to that position Oct. 26, 2015.

As deputy commissioner, Mackin will have direct oversight of the league's business and human resources functions as well as its multimedia and communications departments. He'll also be the league's liaison to its athletics directors, who include his successor at UAB, Mark Ingram.

Mackin will work in the C-USA office in Irving, Texas, and will start his new job Aug. 1.

"I am excited to be back in the industry I have tremendous passion for," Mackin said, "and hope to add value to the C-USA staff and the 14 programs in the conference."

Mackin, a former UAB baseball player, joined the school's athletics administration in 2002. He was promoted to AD in 2007, a job he held until his resignation.

During his UAB tenure, Mackin hired football coach Bill Clark, who took the Blazers to their best season in a decade in his first year in 2014 and is leading the program's return. He also hired former basketball coach Jerod Haase, whose 2015 team won the C-USA Tournament and upset No. 3 seed Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament and whose 2016 team won the regular-season conference title.

As part of his severance agreement, Mackin served UAB in a new role as "Special Assistant for Athletics" from Dec. 1, 2014, to Feb. 28, 2015. His stated duties in that role were "transitioning coaching staff and student-athletes affected by the decision to eliminate football, rifle and bowling and such other duties as reasonably assigned by the President or Vice President of Financial Affairs."

Mackin's severance also included a confidentiality clause that prohibited him from speaking about the UAB administration's decision to eliminate football, rifle and bowling. The school reinstated those sports in June of 2015.

After leaving UAB, Mackin worked in the private sector as vice president for corporate and institutional banking at PNC Financial Services Group in its Birmingham office.

AL.com asked UAB for a response from Clark and Ingram to Mackin going to work for C-USA. UAB's chief communications officer, Anne Buckley, provided this statement: "UAB and UAB Athletics wish Mr. Mackin well in his future endeavors."