#10: Eastern Washington introduced freshly minted AD Collins, who will officially start on July 15. In his remarks, Collins said: “I'm the son of an educator. I'm a former coach and a tireless fundraiser. But I'm a collaborator, and what's exciting about today, it's not about me. It's about everyone in this room. What's exciting is what we can all come together to accomplish. We're going to have three areas of focus in our department, three areas of service. One, we're going to serve our student-athletes and their holistic development. Second, we're going to serve our campus, and third, we're going to serve our community." (link)
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#9: Disney/ESPN has offered anchor Steele $501K and “reasonable” attorney fees to settle a free speech lawsuit. Steele argues ESPN retaliated against her after she made comments about the company’s vaccine mandate on a podcast, thereby violating her free speech and breaching her contract. Steele also contends she was forced to make an apology, was temporarily taken off the air and was deprived of several assignments. (link)
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#8: The Los Angeles Times’ Kartje and McCollough catch up with more than a dozen search firm industry stakeholders to determine why red flags about former USC AD Bohn were missed. Baylor President Livingstone provides perspective: “What you’re trying to do in this situation is balance doing the best job vetting candidates, knowing you are never going to be 100% sure, while protecting confidentiality because you don’t want to damage someone’s reputation at their institution. Those are certainly in tension with one another. It’s about finding the right balance. Some argue that innate lack of transparency can lead to a less thorough vetting process. Others argue it must be done that way because if word leaks about one candidate, then the “whole search is over.” Overall, there was no consensus on who was to blame for the situation at USC, with some blaming the school and others blaming the search firm, TurnkeyZRG, leading Kartje and McCullough to wonder: “If seemingly every player in the system can be blamed, perhaps it’s the system that deserves further scrutiny.” (link)
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#7: Dallas Baptist has named Director of Alumni Affairs Duce as its new AD. Duce was a Baseball student-athlete for the Patriots from 2015 to 2018. (link) |
#6: Queens Charlotte Baseball HC Steedley and his staff stepped down, per D1Baseball’s Rogers. (link) |
#5: Rutgers has named Notre Dame Regional Director of Athletic Advancement Herring as Asst. VP for Athletics Development/Senior Assoc. AD. (link) |
#4: Former Maryland AD Anderson offers a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes when UMD decided to move to the Big Ten, telling the No Limits Talking College Sports Podcast: “So at first, Commissioner Delany, I don't think was interested. One of the reasons why [was] they had gone to Maryland years before that and Maryland said they had no interest. But then what happened is the ACC was able to bring Notre Dame in as a partial partner. That changed the landscape. That changed the thinking of the Big Ten. And so now it was [Big Ten] Commissioner Delany having a conversation with me saying, 'Are you still interested?'" Anderson also notes the move made sense from an institutional standpoint given the number of state flagship institutions in the B1G. “If you look at the ACC, all those schools are, there's private schools, public schools, all kind of different schools, and there wasn't a lot of collaboration.” Anderson goes on to reveal that the “move personally impacted a lot of friendships on my part. [Former ACC Commissioner Swofford] and I, John was a big supporter of mine, very helpful. I mean, it formed, it created a wedge between us.” (link)
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#3: SBJ has released its Forty Under 40 Class of 2023, which includes Mississippi State AD Selmon, Big Ten COO Kenny, FAU AD White, LEARFIELD’s Ohio State Sports Properties VP/GM Knisley, and former OneTeam Partners Chief Licensing Officer Winston. (link)
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#2: Women Leaders kicked off the 2023 Women Leaders/NCAA Executive Institute (EI), which is aimed at advancing high-level women athletic administrators to the top leadership positions. Check out all those involved. (link)
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#1: ESPN's Pete Thamel is reporting La Salle will hire Villanova Senior Assoc. AD/COO Ashwin Puri as its new AD. Collegiate Sports Associates assisted with the search. La Salle President Allen: “In addition to bringing over 20 years of experience to our Athletics Department, Ash has an in-depth understanding of the Philadelphia region and our athletics landscape, which we believe will be a cornerstone to his success. We have the utmost confidence in his vision for La Salle Athletics and I believe that under his leadership we will continue to provide exceptional opportunities for our student-athletes." (link) (link)
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