Sac State’s Campbell takes TCU women’s hoops job

Mark Orr has done his part.

As athletic director for Sacramento State, Orr was paramount in hiring two coaches who provided immediate results, rejuvenating programs in decline — Troy Taylor in football and Mark Campbell in women’s basketball.

Orr’s glee was evident at practices and games. These were his hires, his guys — and it was Sacramento’s gain on campus and in the community. But Orr also understood that these coaches were good, great even, and success would instantly put them on national blast, particularly for programs that were in the market for such leadership.

Sure enough, after Taylor worked wonders with the Hornets, winning three successive Big Sky Conference championships and steering the best team in program history last fall, Stanford came calling. Sac State’s loss was Stanford’s significant gain.

The same for Campbell. TCU’s big gain in hiring him as coach this week is a blow for the Hornets. After helping elevate Oregon to national prominence as an assistant coach and recruiting guru, Campbell took over a Hornets basketball program that won three games in 2020-21. He elevated the team to a 14-win season in his first campaign, and the historic breakthrough this season included a school-record 25 wins, the program’s first NCAA Tournament and first conference championship since the early 1970s.

TCU noticed, naming Campbell its new women’s basketball coach. His hire was announced on Tuesday.

It wasn’t Taylor’s intent to jump ship any more than it was Campbell’s desire to leave with years remaining on his contract. But the opportunity for a greater challenge with massive pay raises that Power Five programs can offer was too good to pass up. Power Five conferences include the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and ACC, where money flows like a raging river in storm season, largely due to television revenue and game attendance.

As a mid-major Division I program, Sacramento State can offer opportunities for coaches to lead programs and to make them championship teams, but not with enormous salaries. The Big Sky does not wade in big money like the Power Fives. That is the nature of the college beast.