FAU announces new athletic director
In May, a nation-wide search began for a new intercollegiate athletic director for Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Dick Young, the interim director, was retiring as of July 15. I had the honor of serving on the committee as the student representative. On Monday, July 14, Craig Angelos formally was named and accepted the position.
As I explained in a previous issue, the things that I looked for while sifting through the many applications were:
1. Campus recreation facility development experience (to help increase the facilities of workout areas and wellness centers on ALL campuses) and
2. Fundraising experience (to help keep our athletic fee minimal)
Many of the candidates had these qualities; and, of course, some more than others. Just like in any interview, there were individuals with more experience in a particular field than in another. So at that point, the question wasn’t “Who is the most qualified,” but instead, “Who is the best fit?” I also added commitment, and knowledge on Student Government to the mix of qualities I would look for in a candidate.
The goal was to take the applications and narrow them down to five. The search committee was not the group to pick the new director. That decision lay in the hands of President Brogan.
The “five candidate” goal didn’t work out. We had to extend it to seven final candidates because of the outstanding talent we had. Each of the candidates are listed below with MY PERSONAL opinion, which does not reflect the opinions of the other committee members:
Craig Angelos — He was the deputy director of athletics at Indiana University. Before IU, he served as the senior associate athletics director at the University of Miami. What I liked about Craig’s interview was that he went in depth with a lot of his answers. He identified my concerns, and said that there is no quick fix to the problems students are facing today. Angelos also has experience with the NCAA Legislation Committee, which will benefit FAU. For things such as cheerleading and dancing to become NCAA sanctioned, it would take someone with experience in legislation to pursue this, if athletics decides to.
Dean Billick — Deputy director of athletics, University of Cincinnati, and former athletics director at Lamar University in Texas. In my opinion, Dean had the most experience out of everyone. He has been in the college scene for 40 years and he brought a lot of knowledge to the table. However, he was not afraid to admit that he was only going to be here for five years, because he was looking at retiring. I did not want to recommend an athletics director who would use FAU, and Boca, as a retirement place.
Thomas Collins — Senior associate athletics director, Arizona State University. Before ASU, Collins worked as an assistant athletics director at the University of Miami. The first thing Collins said to me was: “I hope you are a freshman or a sophomore, because I hate when I work well with SG and they are all seniors, so I have to rebuild my relationship the following year with new people.” This showed that he really does work with Student Government. After I asked him how he planned on getting students to the games, he said that pizza and discounted season tickets usually work. Of course that doesn’t apply to us, but he said, and I felt, he had a very creative mind that would work in any situation. He also had recent experience with building a recreation facility.
Timothy Fitzpatrick — chief operating officer/associate athletic director, U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Fitzpatrick has worked in the athletics departments for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of North Texas. I unfortunately could not make it to his interview. His resume was very impressive. He has a lot of experience with fundraising. Although it’s not with the numbers FAU needs, it did significantly help his current program.
Dr. Lee McElroy — director of athletics, SUNY at Albany. McElroy was great. I was highly impressed. He respectfully removed himself from the search after his interview. I was not the only person that was upset that he removed himself from the pool. He was highly qualified, and ranked highly on my list of “best fit.”
Dan Radakovich — senior associate athletics director, Louisiana State University. Radakovich pulled himself out of the pool before his interview.
Barbara Sparks-McGlinchy — senior associate athletics director, University of South Florida. She has been a Bull for 30 years, which shows commitment. The goals that FAU have are similar to the goals she accomplished at USF only a few years ago. She also brought up her experience with speaking at different campuses, something that highly appealed to me.
So now that you have read over my opinions on the candidates, let me tell you about some of the candidates that didn’t make it into the final seven. Some of them were coming from high school, with no college experience. Others were coming from business fields, also with little experience. As I sifted through the applications, there were some big-name people as references. Analysts on ESPN, the commissioner of the NFL, the Big East and other conferences, just to name a few. Like I said before, it was very tough to narrow it down from nearly 100 applications, but throw in big-name people coming from big-name places, it made it all the tougher.
Immediate needs that Angelos will need to face
There are, of course, some immediate needs that are going to come flying across Craig’s desk.
Campus Recreation under his control. Who will stay? Who will go? What programs will be cut, and what programs will be developed? Will Campus Recreation move out of the gym? Or will no changes take place with Campus Recreation?
Staff and personal changes might be in the works. Also, reorganizing Athletics so that some staff members get new responsibilities is something that won’t be a surprise.
Conferencing is an immediate goal and NEED for our department. The Atlantic Sun conference is not going to get FAU to the promised land. Look for the MAC, Conference USA, or the Big East in 2005.
Moving our football program to division 1-A is a big part of our future. With men’s basketball and football considered the “revenue” sports in colligate athletics, if those sports are not brining in money, the department is going to struggle. So where does the money come from to keep the department running? Extra fees. Do you see why it’s important to go to the football games? Bigger attendance numbers = conference affiliation = division I-A = less money you pay!
That’s all for now. And remember: Although $mitty is spelled with a dollar sign, Student Government using your A&S fees to give you free stuff, MAKES CENTS!
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