No matter how wrong it was that Tim Pernetti was forced to resign, and no matter how much we may want him back, Rutgers is moving on and will hire a new athletic director with in the next few weeks. The University's 26 member search committee, which includes former football player Shaun O'Hara, began interviewing candidates earlier this week, and they will supposedly whittle the list down to the three finalists at some point this weekend. The three finalists will then meet with some of the school's coaches so the coaches can offer their opinion of the finalists to the committee before the final decision is made. Tom Lucci and Keith Sargeant both have the list of candidates being interviewed.
Here's a run down of the eleven people who are vying for the job.
The first interview conducted was with Kevin MacConell, who is the preferred choice of many Rutgers alumni. MacConell currently serves as the Director of Football Operations with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he is a New Jersey native and a Rutgers alumnus himself. Before following Greg Schiano to Tampa, he worked in Rutgers' athletic department for 26 years, most recently as the Deputy Athletic Director. He should be a strong candidate for the position, but it seems like Rutgers prefers an outsider.
Wisconsin Deputy Athletic Director Sean Frazier is considered the heavy favorite to land this job. The Long Island native has plenty of experience at big time football programs, as he played at Alabama and has oversight of the three time defending Big 10 champion Badgers football program. He has served as Barry Alvarez's right hand man since 2007, and he received experience as an athletic director at Merrimack College (a Division 2 school in Massachusetts), Clarkson University and Manhattanville College prior to his time in Madison. His Big 10 experience is obviously a huge plus, and he has even somewhat subtly campaigned for the job on Twitter.
Louisville Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director Julie Hermann is viewed as one of the leading candidates as well. Louisville has established themselves as one of the top athletic departments in the nation, and Hermann oversees 20 of their programs, including the women's basketball team that made a run to the final four this year. Her background is as a volleyball player and coach, and she has little experience with football. She is a graduate of Nebraska.
Fresno State athletic director Tom Boeh has 18 years of experience as an athletic director, at both Fresno State and Ohio. He brokered the deal that moved Fresno from the WAC to the Mountain West, and he has a strong track record hiring coaches, bringing on Frank Solich at Ohio and Tim Deruyter at Fresno. Under his watch, the Bulldogs' baseball program has won a national championship in 2008. Boeh is an Illinois native, and has Big 10 experience from his time working at Northwestern. But for all his pluses, I really did not like his decision to fire Pat Hill after 2011 (it's like if Rutgers fired Schiano).
Jim Fiore has been the Athletic Director at Stony Brook since 2003, and he has taken the Seawolves' athletic department to new heights. Their football program has grown from not offering scholarships to being a power house at the FCS level, the baseball program made a Cinderella run to the College World Series last year, and he has upgraded a lot of their athletic facilities, including the basketball arena. He is known as a tremendous fundraiser, but he does not have any experience with big time football, as he worked in Ivy League athletic departments before Stony Brook. He is from Long Island and played football at Hofstra.
Ohio AD Jim Schas has served as an athletic director since 1999, first at Wichita State and now with the Bobcats. Schas is known for running economically efficient athletic departments on a fairly small budget while keeping his teams competitive on the field. Ohio has been one of the better football teams in the MAC in recent years, and their basketball program did the yearly honors of knocking off Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2010. He is a graduate of Purdue.
Northeastern AD Peter Roby is from New Britain, Connecticut and is a Dartmouth alumnus. He was the head basketball coach at Harvard once upon a time, before moving into an administrative role. He currently resides on the NCAA tournament selection committee. He took on his position with the Huskies in 2007, and he has also worked as an executive at Reebok.
Michigan State Deputy Athletic Director Greg Ianni has been at the school since 1993, so he obviously has a ton of Big 10 experience. He is second in command with the Spartans, and he has been in charge of expansion to their football stadium.
Iowa senior associate AD Jane Meyer has worked for the Hawkeyes since 2001, and she oversees the women's athletic programs at the school. She was the primary contact for the renovation of Kinnick Stadium in the mid 00's, and she obviously knows the Big 10.
Texas associate AD for compliance Amy Folan is a Connecticut grad and former basketball player who has been at Texas since 2001.
Florida State Athletic Director Randy Spetman was probably the most surprising candidate mentioned, but he has since shot the rumors down. He claims that Rutgers reached out to him and he declined interest in the position.
To me, Frazier seems like the runaway choice here because of his experience as an athletic director and his understanding of big time football. I also like Fiore, especially since the RAC needs to be renovated, and MacConnell would also be a really good choice to please the alumni (ie. donors).
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