The job requirements for Colorado State’s next athletic director are boilerplate for almost any other Division I school but significant for CSU.
The notice that will appear on the NCAA job posting site lists experience in athletic administration, preferably at the Division I level. Mark Driscoll, who will return to the banking field 2 1/2 years after accepting the AD’s job at his alma mater, had no formal athletic administrative background.
Boulder sports consultant Chuck Neinas, who has been hired to assist the search, said Friday that CSU president Larry Penley wants a successor by March 31, Driscoll’s last day.
“I don’t know if it could be done (by then), but there will be every effort to move expeditiously,” Neinas said. “It’s going to be an attractive (candidate) pool. I’ve been contacted by several folks already.”
Neinas was instrumental in Colorado hiring Mike Bohn from San Diego State last summer. Neinas then helped San Diego State name Bohn’s successor, Jeff Schemmel.
Although Driscoll wasn’t on his radar of potential ADs, Neinas served as a consultant to CSU before Driscoll’s hiring, primarily to gauge sentiment in the department.
“They wanted someone who would stay in Fort Collins,” Neinas said.
Neinas has seen some searches finished within a month, such as one at Oklahoma, and others extended for more than six months. Connecticut needed only a day to rehire its former No. 2 man, ex-CSU AD Jeff Hathaway, Driscoll’s immediate predecessor.
Neinas said his role is to filter potential candidates.
“I can talk to people who would not normally apply and there’s the confidentiality factor,” he said.
February is an unusual time to be looking for an athletic director. The only other major opening is at New Mexico, where Rudy Davalos announced last fall he would retire at the end of the school year after 14 years at the helm.
New Mexico might be considered a better job, considering state funds were recently earmarked for facilities improvement. Contrast the $8 million windfall there with Colorado, where legislators were abuzz over whether CU should pay for families to attend a bowl game, an almost universal practice in collegiate athletics.
Longtime CSU booster John Schmidt said of Driscoll’s departure and CSU’s lingering financial woes: “It’s a wake-up call to the Board of Agriculture (CSU’s governing board) and the president’s office. It’s not the man, it’s the system. The program needs the support of the university, community, boosters and alumni. The boosters have all the answers, but how many of them give money to the program?”
If a new AD isn’t in place April 1, senior associate athletic director Christine Susemihl will become interim AD. As the senior member of the department with 32 years of experience, she would serve her second stint as an interim AD.
“Someone told me if I have one more term as interim, I’ll be the second-longest (tenured) AD in CSU history,” Susemihl said. She will not apply for the permanent position.
Asked if she could be drafted, Susemihl said, “I’d be a conscientious objector.”
Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-820-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
