Though the overall number of females serving in leadership positions has increased since the passage of Title IX, the proportion of women in such capacities has decreased. For example, women directed approximately 90% of women’s athletic programs in 1972, but currently occupy just 8.7% of head athletic director positions. Surprisingly, there has been a dearth of academic research that has addressed the decline and underrepresentation of females from athletics administration. Thus, little is known of what determines the success of athletic administrators, which is important to theory development and practice, in that it provides scholars and employers better guidance in ensuring that men and women attain equally successful careers in management (Kirchmeyer, 1998). The purpose of this study was to explore gender differences on the determinants of career success (i.e., career satisfaction and promotions) through the differential return hypothesis (Stroh et al., 1992). We chose to assess two categorizations of career success determinants- human capital (i.e., tenure, playing and coaching experience, training, education) and social capital (i.e., network ties, weak ties, intraorganizational ties, hierarchical ties, gender similar ties). Consistent with the differential return hypothesis, human capital and social capital were hypothesized to have a greater influence on the men’s career success than on the women’s. A mailed questionnaire was used to gather data from 214 (75 males, 139 females) NCAA Division I athletic administrators. Hierarchical cluster analyses, chi-square analyses, and a three-way multivariate analysis of variance were used to test the hypotheses. Results of the cluster analyses indicated that administrators could be classified into two distinct groups based on their human and social capital. The chi-square analyses indicated that men had high human capital investments (41.9%) when compared to their female counterparts (28.1%) (c 2 (1) = 4.19, p < .05), but no differences in social capital were noted (c 2(1) = 3.62, p > .05). Support for the hypotheses were mixed, as we failed to support the human capital hypothesis, but found some support for a differential return by social capital hypothesis. Specifically, men with high social capital experienced slightly greater promotions (M = 3.41, SD = 1.28) than did women with high social capital (M = 2.56, SD = .82) (F (1, 197) = 3.80, p < .10). Thus, in response to the question of does having "the right stuff" matter, this study indicates that it generally does, as female administrators are generally receiving similar or greater returns for their investments. Keyword(s): administration/mgmt, athletics/sports, gender issues