Craig Thompson has been commissioner of the Mountain West Convention longer than there was a Mountain West Convention.
He accepted the job on Oct. 15, 1998, three months earlier than the convention started operations on Jan. 4, 1999.
It was so way back that on the time, Brigham Younger and Utah have been all a decade away from departing.
On Wednesday, Thompson introduced he would step down on the finish of the 12 months.
Our view: The transfer has a lot much less to do with realignment threats than with Thompson seeing his imaginative and prescient of an expanded playoff come to fruition — he was an architect of the 12-team mannequin — and with the large change coming to varsity athletics within the type of NCAA restructuring and income sharing with the athletes.
That is the time to go away, until you intend to remain via the tumult.
All these points will probably be priorities for Thompson’s alternative.
Earlier than we delve into potential candidates, some context on the checklist under:
— For all of the discuss realignment, and particularly concerning the Pac-12 poaching a number of faculties from the Mountain West, we view the convention as a extremely viable entity transferring ahead due to geographic alignment and the expanded playoff.
The allocation of computerized bids for the six highest-ranked convention champions successfully units up a showdown between the MW champ and the American champ for a berth — a vastly extra advantageous construction than the present mannequin.
— Given the present surroundings, the Mountain West ought to strongly think about candidates with deep current relationships in faculty soccer. The convention would possibly expertise membership turnover (outgoing, incoming or each), and the power to back-channel, to have contacts you'll be able to belief, will probably be very important.
As soon as the college presidents decide on an govt search agency to deal with the legwork, a candidate pool will emerge.
Three names instantly come to thoughts as pantheon candidates, every with a great deal of business expertise within the western third of the nation: Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne (beforehand of Arizona), Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens and Pac-12 deputy commissioner Jamie Zaninovich.
They're unlikely to have an interest within the place, however the MW ought to carry out due diligence and place preliminary calls to all three.
Assuming that trio is off the market, 5 names come to thoughts:
Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman: If the convention opts to stay in-house however desires to raise an athletic director, Burman may very well be atop the checklist. He has deep roots within the MW and, in contrast to a number of of his equally-respected friends, doesn’t work for an establishment that may very well be leaping to a different convention earlier than a commissioner is even employed. So long as the MW exists, Wyoming will probably be part of it. And that continuity might make him the highest inside AD candidate.
MW deputy commissioner Bret Gilliland: One of many MW’s first staff has served as deputy commissioner since 2005. In different phrases, it will seem Thompson has been grooming his chief lieutenant for the job. There may be a lot to be stated for stability, for identified portions and minimal disruptions. And the MW presidents would possibly agree with that notion. The longer the search goes, the extra doubtless it turns into that they search an exterior candidate.
Ex-Utah athletic director Chris Hill: The person who ushered the Utes into the Pac-12 stepped down from his place in 2018 however continues to observe the faculty soccer scene. We don’t envision Hill as a long-term answer. However the MW should concentrate on the following three or 4 years and all of the inevitable tumult. The mannequin for this feature is Chuck Neinas, the previous Huge Eight commissioner who parachuted in to stabilize the Huge 12 a decade in the past after Nebraska, Texas A&M and Colorado departed.
USC soccer govt Ed Stewart: His official title is govt senior affiliate athletic director. Basically, Stewart oversees the USC soccer program. However Stewart’s earlier life makes him a major candidate for the MW job: He spent a few years as chief of soccer operations for the Huge 12. And earlier than that, he was a captain of Nebraska’s 1994 nationwide championship group. Stewart is well-connected within the business and understands how the chess items transfer. Whether or not he’d think about the job so quickly after becoming a member of USC, we can't say.
Huge Sky commissioner Tom Wistrcill: But another choice linked to realignment and the potential for the MW to finally add faculties. (The highest applications within the Huge Sky could be prime candidates.) Wistrcill has seen faculty athletics from the within, as a commissioner and athletic director, and the skin, as a senior vp at Learfield, the multimedia firm. Whether or not the MW presidents would agree to rent somebody from the FCS ranks, we additionally can't say.
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