Univ. of Missouri Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin on Friday would not promise the "exact time frame in his search" to replace outgoing AD Mike Alden, but he is "certain he doesn't want the hunt to drag on," according to David Morrison of the COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE. Loftin said, "The longer we delay identifying a new leader here, the more uncertainty we create in the program. ... This place is doing very well. We don’t want to lose what we have right now." Loftin said that he "wasn’t yet sure whether he’d be using a search firm, as he did with the Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search" when he hired Eric Hyman as AD at Texas A&M. But Loftin said that he would "'likely' go a similar route this time." Loftin: "These search firms, if you pick the right one, have reputations. ... They also have access." Loftin said that Alden has "already been a sounding board about the type of candidate needed." Morrison noted Loftin "wants someone with 'deep experience" in athletics. Loftin added that he wants someone who "understands the media climate of the day." He said that previous experience as an AD at a Power 5 conference program "would be important, but not essential." Meanwhile, Alden said that he "didn’t know whether he would seek another athletics job in the future" and would not be a candidate to replace outgoing SEC Commissioner Mike Slive (COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE, 1/31).
END OF AN ERA: In K.C., Tod Palmer noted Alden, whose retirement takes effect Aug. 31, "will transition to a teaching position in MU’s College of Education." He "insisted that stepping down was his choice and it wasn’t related to his health, anything with his family or finances or anything else." Alden said that he had been "contemplating retirement with his wife, Rockie, for a few years." Loftin said he "didn't really try" to talk Alden out of retiring. Palmer noted Alden "oversaw the most prosperous chapter" in MU athletics history, but while "never mentioning any specifically, Alden acknowledged on Friday several missteps during his tenure." When Alden arrived at MU in '98, the school had a $13.7M athletic budget, "one of the lowest in the Big 12, but it has grown" to more than $83M. More money is expected in '15 when the SEC Network "begins to add revenue." Loftin: "He’s leaving at the top of his game" (K.C. STAR, 1/31). In St. Louis, Dave Matter noted UM System President Tim Wolfe and Loftin "are still relatively new to the scene," taking office in '12 and '14, respectively. But Alden "insisted the changes didn’t influence his decision to step away." Alden: "That guy over there (Loftin), I’m just telling you guys, he’s a rock star. ... Actually, it made it harder (to leave)" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/31).
NEXT IN LINE: In Missouri, Joe Walljasper noted Alden's influence is "seen around the country, where an inordinate number of his former assistants" are now ADs, including Ross Bjork (Ole Miss), Whit Babcock (Virginia Tech), Mario Moccia (New Mexico State) and Brian Wickstrom (Louisiana-Monroe). An AD tree with "that many branches has some logical contenders for Missouri’s vacancy" (COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE, 2/1). In St. Louis, Jeff Gordon noted MU's next AD "will walk into a pretty good situation," but there "will still be plenty of work to do." Alden spent a "fair amount of time controlling damage and quelling booster unrest." The next AD "must widen the current revenue streams and create new ones." MU has "worked its way into the middle of the pack, but the race gets faster all the time." Alden: "We have to expand the types of our scholarship fund numbers. We have about 8,500 members right now. We need to get that north of 10,000" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/31).
ALDEN'S LEGACY: The COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE's Walljasper wrote under the header, "Alden Got The Big Decisions Right." History "will smile on Mike Alden." College athletics "is a big business, and he got the biggest business decisions right." Whatever else "has happened in his 17-year tenure as athletic director -- and a lot of weird stuff happened -- he positioned Missouri for future success." Former MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said of Alden, "I think he will have an incredible legacy. Athletics has risen -- I think, without a doubt -- to the most illustrious period in the history of the university. He's led it there." Walljasper noted Alden’s "wildly fluctuating popularity in the state probably had its roots in his struggles with public relations." It is "not that he was ever rude or unprofessional." He was "just very guarded." So rather than "getting his side of the story out, Alden often lost control of the message and let speculation or opposing opinions fill the information vacuum" (COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE, 1/31). In St. Louis, Joe Strauss wrote MU "experienced significant upgrades in facilities, revenue and profile during Alden's term." MU "would have seemed consigned to second-tier status within an increasingly vulnerable Big 12" if it had not moved to the SEC. Slive called Alden "a transformative leader." Strauss noted the term "is appropriate when measured against the end points of Alden's term." Alden's accomplishment was "measuring his football program's potential and going for it while conventional wisdom suggested Columbia would become a conference backwater" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/31). But in Missouri, Mark Selig wrote Alden "did seem ignorant of the moral move" on a pair recent student-athlete sexual assault cases. Selig: "Ascribe blame to whom you please, but when writing the book on Alden, don't let his handling of these situations serve as a mere footnote." Replacing an "institution like Alden won't be easy." But "whoever is up to the task ... can analyze Alden's dynamic tenure and use it as a guide -- both of how to build a powerhouse and how not to overlook the more delicate issues" (Columbia MISSOURIAN, 2/1).
