Oregon State AD Search May Finally End This Week

Multiple sources are reporting that Scott Barnes, Pittsburgh’s current athletic director, will be leaving Pitt to fill the Oregon State position that has been sitting vacant since September’s abrupt departure of Todd Stansbury for the AD job at Georgia Tech.

Oregon State will likely announce the decision later this week after Barnes officially has accepted the position, but at this time has not confirmed or denied the rumors.

Scott Barnes has been mentioned several times as a potential replacement since September by members of the media.

Hiring a new athletic director is a really weird thing. It’s not like a normal job where you promote from within or post a job listing on Indeed. The search firm College Sports Solutions guided Oregon State through the process of finding and interviewing qualified candidates that would be interested in leaving their current employment for Corvallis.

So who is Scott Barnes and what can we expect? Some quick points to hit on Barnes: He’s from the Pacific North West (Washington), so this is somewhat of a homecoming, and he was the AD at Utah State who hired Gary Andersen. Most likely, Gary Andersen was a part of the group that interviewed Scott Barnes, which is kind of a beautiful circle-of-life moment.

Barnes was only the AD at Pitt for two years, and during that time didn’t really do a whole lot. He was a part of hiring the new basketball coach, Kevin Stallings, who currently has the team sitting at 8-2. So maybe that was a good hire? We’ll see.

What happens when a new AD gets hired? Usually the marketing direction changes and employees within the athletic department get restructured/let go to make way for the new AD’s hires (this may very well be the end of “The Best College Town in the Pac-12” campaign). Usually a lot of talk about facilities and big plans for building some kind of new practice facility or a lofty renovation project get tossed around. And you can bet there will be some kind of new alumni-focused marketing campaign to sell tickets.

But as far as coaching hires goes, Oregon State’s next AD is inheriting an already well-liked and proven staff in Scott Rueck, Wayne Tinkle, Gary Andersen, and Pat Casey. For the time being, Scott Barnes would be a hire who’s biggest job would likely be to increase revenue through donations, ticket sales, and generating excitement by building relationships with the alumni community.

Scott Barnes recently commented on the reports that state he has accepted the position at Oregon State and tried to put the rumors to rest.

We will continue to follow Oregon State’s process as they search for a new athletic director.