Oregon State on Thursday named Pitt AD Scott Barnes as its new VP & AD, a role he "will start Feb. 13," according to Gina Mizell of the Portland OREGONIAN. Barnes replaces Todd Stansbury, who recently left Oregon State after less than two years as AD to "take the same post at Georgia Tech, his alma mater." OSU President Ed Ray in a statement said Barnes' hiring came after a national search that drew "incredibly strong interest from a deep pool of leading university athletic directors and top private sector sports administrators." Barnes will "oversee a department that has 18 sports and an annual budget" of $84M, compared with Pitt's 19 sports and $75M budget. Prior to joining Pitt in April '15, Barnes was Utah State AD, where he hired current OSU football coach Gary Andersen in '09. Barnes also has "ties to the West Coast" -- he is a native of Spokane and previously worked at both Washington and Eastern Washington (Portland OREGONIAN, 12/23). In Portland, Ken Goe writes Barnes "would appear to be a good fit and an excellent choice" for OSU. But Oregon has a state law "modeled on the NFL's Rooney Rule requiring public universities to interview a qualified minority candidate for high-profile jobs within the athletic department." If OSU is "fully following the law, the school should release the name or names of the minority candidate or candidates interviewed" (Portland OREGONIAN, 12/23).
MAKING THE MOST OF HIS TIME: In Pittsburgh, Craig Meyer notes Barnes was at Pitt for 18 months after replacing the fired Steve Pederson, and he "noticeably reshaped the school’s athletic department." An "accomplished fundraiser for much of his career, he made it a priority to improve Pitt’s financial standing in the broader world of college athletics." He "spearheaded several capital projects as part of a larger facilities master plan and released a comprehensive strategic plan for the athletic department that included a series of lofty, long-term goals" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 12/23). In Pittsburgh, Jerry DiPaola wrote among Barnes' goals for Pitt "were to increase" football attendance at Heinz Field and "improve relations with fans." But after Pitt "sold a record 55,630 football season tickets -- spurred by the renewal of the Penn State rivalry -- attendance dropped below 40,000 for games in November against Duke and Syracuse." Also under Barnes' watch, the "popular Pitt script branding logo returned to campus on everything from uniforms to coffee mugs." Meanwhile, Barnes' "most controversial move at Pitt was hiring basketball coach Kevin Stallings, who had been at Vanderbilt for 17 years." Many Pitt fans were "hoping for a higher-profile hire and were upset when it was revealed Barnes used a search firm whose founder hired Stallings at Vanderbilt and worked with Barnes" at UW (TRIBLIVE.com, 12/22).
