Jeff Long is gone as expected at this point. Hell of a bump in salary. He was making around $200 K at Pitt, and Arkansas came in with $450,000. That sort of cash will go a long way at Wal-Mart.

No way Pitt was going to match that — especially when Pitt’s extension negotiations stalled out earlier this spring/summer. That kind of bump in salary  comes at a cost. Dealing with the Houston Nutt/Las Cronicas Locas De Boss Hawg stuff. Not to mention a fanbase with contingent unable to distinguish reality from satire. Wow.

I have no idea who will be the next AD. I can tell you it won’t be any former player now doing commentary for the WWL. As I tried to point out earlier, the nature of the AD job is so different from even 15 years ago. Gladhanding and raising money for the Athletic Department is vital, but it is only a component of what the job demands these days. I only want Pitt to find and hire the best person for the job.
In the interim, Donna Sanft, the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Administration, Compliance and Student Life can add “interim AD” to her resume.

Chancellor Nordenberg has already formed an athletic director search committee to be chaired by Jerry Cochran, Pitt’s executive vice chancellor and general counsel. The committee will include Susan Albrecht, Pitt NCAA faculty athletic representative; Tom Bigley, a member of the Board of Trustees and former chair of the athletics committee; Marcus Bowman, director of athletic business operations and former walk-on basketball player under Coach Dixon; Kirk Bruce, assistant athletic director for Olympic sports and former Pitt basketball player in the early 70s and Pitt women’s basketball coach in the 80s and 90s.; John Conomikes, a member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the athletics committee; and Carol Sprague, senior associate athletic director.

They have, apparently, started work immediately. Whether Chancellor Nordenberg will do anything with their recommendations is a different issue (see, 2003). I do expect the job to draw a fair amount of interest. There are still only 65 BCS schools (and only 64 of them have athletic director positions).