Athletic director search begins

President John Simpson announced Monday that UB will start the search for a permanent athletic director in May.

The search will begin once Simpson receives a report from consultant Gene Corrigan, who was hired to evaluate the entire athletics program.

William Maher, who has served as interim athletic director since June 2003, told The Spectrum on Tuesday he would like to be considered for the permanent position.

Maher is also considered a leading candidate for the athletic director job at his alma mater, Canisius University, whose deadline for naming an athletic director is the first week in May.

Although officials said UB's search has not started, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday that Brian Colleary, the athletic director at Duquesne University, is a candidate for the top athletics job at UB.

Colleary told the Post-Gazette he plans to interview with UB later this month and that he is flattered to be considered for the job. He said he is also a candidate for the job at Canisius.

Maher said he anticipates it will yield several suggestions to help UB compete on the highest level and win championships.

"It's been a process that's gone as we've expected it to," Maher said. "As with anything, you want things to move quicker, but we wanted Gene to be very thorough in his approach and he's been just that."

Corrigan, who President Simpson hired in December, has worked both on and off campus throughout the semester, meeting with staff, poring over statistics and making observations in order to make recommendations regarding finances, team competitiveness and athletic investments.

Now a high-profile consultant, Corrigan has served as the president of the NCAA, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and as athletic director for both the University of Notre Dame and University of Virginia.

UB officials said they expect his report by the end of April.

Dennis Black, vice president for Student Affairs, said President Simpson had wanted to finish most of his academic position searches before looking for a permanent athletic director. With those now underway, if not done already, a search committee will be formed in May to conduct a national search for someone to run the Division of Athletics.

According to Black, whose office is helping coordinate Corrigan's efforts, the report will help the search committee narrow its search for an athletic director.

"(The evaluation) takes an outside pair of eyes to look inside at what we do, and it take an outside pair of eyes that's been a coach, a major conference commissioner and the president of the NCAA," Black said. "It takes those eyes and looks inside at what we're doing, and what we need to do to be excellent."

James Willis, chief of staff for President Simpson, said it's great that UB is finally getting the search process going.

After a year and a half at UB, Simpson has gained a much better understanding of the athletics program in context, which will help further the search, Willis said.

"Now is the right time to go do it," he said.

According to Maher, working with Corrigan has been "a great professional opportunity," and "at this point in time, I would like to be considered for the position."

UB will also hire a consultant, based on Corrigan's recommendation, to lead the search committee, Black said. Although Corrigan won't head the committee, he will stay involved in the process.

"He doesn't do this work exclusively. He works with other individuals on this kind of work," Black said. "I do expect he'll continue to contribute to UB athletics informally in the months ahead."

Black said the search committee would be a combination of campus and community leaders, some faculty as well as some students and student athletes.

Working with Corrigan at UB has not been Black's first experience with the consultant. They also worked together on a comprehensive evaluation of the Mid-American Conference.

"He's extremely engaging and experienced individual who's got a quick sense of intercollegiate athletics, what works and what doesn't," Black said. "While his career has been in athletics, his focus is on students and their experience as much as it is about the institutions."

Black said there is no timetable for naming a permanent director, "but I would suspect it will be faster than other UB searches."

"The big news will be in a week or two," Black added, referring the release of Corrigan's report.