What had been rumored to be possible from the moment Oregon State lost their AD to Georgia Tech, to likely from last week to now being official.

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said a national search for “the next great leader of Pitt Athletics” will begin immediately to replace Scott Barnes, who has accepted the athletic director post at Oregon State.

Barnes will work closely with the Chancellor to assure a smooth transition in coming weeks.

“Scott Barnes is an outstanding athletic director and has been wholeheartedly committed to the success of our student-athletes during his time at Pitt,” Gallagher said. “I am very sorry to see him leave, but I know that Scott is doing what is best for his family, and I wish them well as he takes on his new role at Oregon State.”

Barnes is a native of Spokane, Washington and there have been whispers that there are family reasons he would like to be closer to home — which is obliquely referenced.

“Upon accepting the athletic director position at the University of Pittsburgh more than 18 months ago, I mentioned how honored and humbled my family was to join the ‘Pitt Family,’” Barnes said. “During our time here, we’ve learned, more and more, how fitting that description really is. Pitt is an incredibly special place with wonderful people who have become like family for us.

“That’s why leaving the university to accept the athletic director position at Oregon State was such a difficult decision. Ultimately, we felt this was a choice we had to make based on some very important personal family considerations.”

I do wish him well and hope things work out for his family.

Most will dwell on his (very questionable) hiring of Kevin Stallings to replace Jamie Dixon as basketball head coach — and his disastrous handling of the press conference to introduce Stallings.

Before that point, fans totally believed he would nail the hiring. Even if it wouldn’t be either Miller brother. As I noted then,

The time it can take an AD to go from god to clown is very short.

And that certainly happened with Barnes and many Pitt fans.

Even if the recent history of hiring at power schools is at best 50-50 on going well. Even if all evidence suggests most schools don’t get the coach their fans think they should be able to hire.

Despite the good work on bringing back the Script. Despite willing to do throwback unis. Despite getting the Athletic Department fundraising working once more. Despite laying the work out for a master plan to upgrade all the athletic facilities — something desperately needed. Despite an excellent — and surprising — hire of Jay Vidovich as the men’s soccer coach.

Scott Barnes is a decent Athletic Director, and we will never know if the overall balance sheet of his work would outweigh the present perception.He understandably and fairly won’t get credit for too much in his tenure. But he will take plenty of blame with him.