most schools have one person that is the director of men's and women's track and field and XC and a coach under that person that coaches whatever gender the director does not coach. About seven schools have a female director that is the boss of the coach of the other gender's events. In Taylor's case she was a coach and they promoted her to Associate Director because she has done such a good job.

Rather than being some strange BYU thing, it is, in fact, a promotion and a bump in prestige. Perhaps your frustration with how BYU does some things caused you to jump to an incorrect conclusion on this one.