Barry Alvarez. Image courtesy: UW Madison Sports Information.
MADISON, WI (WSAU) — UW Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank and others announced on Wednesday that a national search for the school’s next Director of Athletics will be conducted.
“I plan to hire the most talented candidate,” said Blank. “I fully expect that individual is going to lift this University and its athletic program to even better heights than we’ve seen over the last several decades.”
She notes that a national search for an AD at the school hasn’t been the norm. “Every other Athletic Director search that has happened around this university has been the following: the Chancellor threw open his or her door and announced the candidate. That’s not what we are doing.
“We are doing a full, national search,” she added.
Alvarez said he will be staying out of the search process but will make himself available in the event the committee has questions or needs guidance. “I wouldn’t tell them how to do the job but I will be there to support and give advice any time they wanted it. But, as a wise man once said if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
Additionally, Alvarez has both publicly and privately endorsed the current Deputy Athletic Director Chris McIntosh as his hand-picked successor. “People know how I feel about Mac, and I feel like my responsibility was to have someone prepared,” he said.
McIntosh was an All-American Offensive Lineman under Alvarez in the late ’90s and had a three-year professional career with the Seattle Seahawks.
Current Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard is also thought by many to be considered a candidate for the job. Pollard, an Oshkosh native, worked as the CFO and Senior Associate AD at Wisconsin before being hired away by ISU in 2005.
Pollard ran track and cross country at UW Oshkosh before beginning his career in athletic administration in 1989.
Alvarez’s retirement becomes official on June 30th. A nine-person search committee has been formed and they hope to have a replacement named in the next few months.
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