PITT TO HIRE UTAH STATE’S ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR SAME ROLE

Barnes leaves same post at Utah State

Scott Barnes is reportedly the university’s next choice to be its athletic director, a position that has been vacant since Dec. 17, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed Thursday.

Scott Barnes isn’t someone who talks just to talk, say those who know him.

But, when he does talk, results tend to follow.

Barnes, 52, is set to be announced as Pitt’s new athletic director today, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, ending a four-month search that started Dec. 17 when chancellor Patrick Gallagher fired Steve Pederson.

Barnes comes to Pitt after serving as Utah State’s athletic director since 2008 and brings with him a history of strong coaching hires, impressive fundraising and skilled networking to the Panthers’ athletic department.

In his seven years at Utah State, Barnes oversaw a stunning turnaround in the Aggies football program. In 2009, he hired coach Gary Andersen to take over a program that hadn’t finished above .500 since 1997, and Andersen steadily built Utah State into one of the best non-power five conference programs. The Aggies won 11 games in 2012 and finished No. 16 in the final Associated Press poll.

When Andersen left to coach Wisconsin after that season, Barnes promoted offensive coordinator Matt Wells, who has kept the program steady and led the Aggies to consecutive bowl games in the past two seasons.

“He made some great personnel decisions with his coaches,” said fellow Mountain West athletic director Paul Krebs of New Mexico.

“They have a philosophy there at Utah State, how they built their program. They stayed true to that.”

In contrast, Barnes will step into an athletic department at Pitt that has been largely defined by instability at its football

head coaching position. Pederson had to make three coaching hires over his final four years — none of which stayed longer than three seasons — and that revolving door was a major factor in his firing.

At Utah State, the increased success Barnes oversaw on the field led to improvements off it, too, and he has spearheaded one of the most aggressive fundraising campaigns in the history of the school’s athletic program.

He secured the two largest donations in Utah State athletics history — $5.25 million for the Wayne Estes Center and $3.7 for the school’s ICON Sports Performance Center — as well as three other gifts greater than $1 million.

“He’s basically finding needles in haystacks when it comes to that type of money in Utah, especially because most of the money is going to Provo [BYU] or it’s going to Salt Lake City [Utah],” said attorney Jason Belzer, who represents college coaches for GAME, Inc., and serves as a professor of sports business at Rutgers.

“Utah State has always been [in the minority] in Utah sports, but, in reality, they’ve actually been extremely successful over the last few years in a lot of different areas. He has done a fantastic job.”

Pitt has been very successful at raising money for capital projects over the past few decades. Pederson oversaw the building of Petersen Events Center on campus, as well as the football team’s practice facility on the South Side and Petersen Sports Complex for Olympic sports.

Of course, the move to Pitt will be a step up for Barnes, who previously served as the athletic director at Eastern Washington (19992005) and a senior associate athletic director at Washington (2005-08).

The biggest change will be the increased budget he must manage as an athletic director at a power-five conference school. Pitt’s total athletic expenses for the year ending June 30, 2014 were $66.1 million, according to the Department of Education. Over the same timeframe, Utah State’s was $25.1 million.

“He’s going to have to deal with a much larger budget, obviously, and having to deal with things like media rights,” Belzer said. “But, actually, in a way, from an operational standpoint, it gets a little bit easier as you move up the ranks because of the finances. When you have access to more money, you don’t have to work with less.

“He’s proven at every step — low major, mid-major, now he’s going to the high major — that he can be successful in each of those areas.”

Another key to Barnes’ success in moving up the ladder has been his ability to network within college athletics. Krebs, who served with Barnes on the Mountain West’s competition committee, praised his understated demeanor in meetings.

“He’s not a guy that talks to talk,” Krebs said. “He’s somebody who’s very well thought of, very well respected. When he speaks, he’s worth listening to and has something to say.”

That respect led to Barnes’ position this past year as chair of the NCAA men’s basketball committee, one of the more public appointments an athletic director can draw.

“When you put yourself in a position of power in that perspective, that allows you to help control some of that and have a say — a significant say — in the way things are done,” Belzer sai

d. “When you’re sitting at the head of the No. 2 revenue sport in college athletics, that’s a pretty significant power place.”