Baylor yesterday hired Missouri AD Mack Rhoades for the same position, replacing Ian McCaw, who "resigned May 30 following an investigation that found the school mishandled allegations of sexual assault, including allegations against athletes," according to a front-page piece by Brice Cherry of the WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD. Rhoades joins Baylor after a "tumultuous one-year tenure at Missouri." Last fall the MU football team "staged a boycott in support of a graduate student who used a hunger strike to protest racial tensions on the campus." Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel and baseball coach Tim Jamieson "stepped down following his team's season." Missouri's softball team in May also issued a statement that they "were playing in protest of Rhoades' leadership." That protest "came after the athletic department began an internal investigation into possible mistreatment of players" by softball coach Ehren Earleywine. Rhoades spent six years as Houston VP/Athletics "before accepting the Missouri job" in March '15. Cherry notes Todd Patulski has served as Baylor's interim AD since McCaw’s resignation. Exec Associate AD/External Affairs Nick Joos said that Patulski will "now return to his old capacity" of Deputy AD. Baylor "plans to formally introduce Rhoades as AD at a press conference Monday" (WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD, 7/14). In K.C., Tod Palmer writes it is unclear if the issues "hastened Rhoades' departure" from MU, where he had said that he "hoped to retire." Rhoades called MU a "destination job" upon being hired there (K.C. STAR, 7/14).
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES: MU yesterday announced that Deputy AD Wren Baker will be interim AD and that a "nationwide search would be conducted" for Rhoades' replacement. In Missouri, Joe Walljasper notes the announcement is the "latest in a series of shakeups" that has left the MU athletic department and the university administration "barely recognizable compared to the one that began the last school year." Rhoades "wanting to escape the chaos that has enveloped the university and athletic department in the last year was not a surprise, but the destination was." Baylor is "one of the few universities with even more recent controversy than Missouri" (COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE, 7/14).
NOT REMEMBERED FONDLY? USA TODAY's Dan Wolken writes MU fans will "not remember him fondly or be able to cite a single major accomplishment under Rhoades, but it's hard to get much done when your entire first year" as AD is "spent putting out fires and your future is uncertain with the school's administrative leadership completely in flux" (USA TODAY, 7/14). In K.C., Sam Mellinger in a front-page piece writes "nobody thought Rhoades was a long-term fit," and he "did very little in his 15 months on the job to endear himself to the university or its sports fans." Rhoades "earned a reputation as a poor communicator, both internally and externally, which limited his ability to solve or at times even identify problems." He was "hired as a fundraising savant, but while alumni pride can be seen with the academic side setting an annual donations record, Rhoades has frustrated many by essentially stalling the renovation project at the south end of Faurot Field." Mellinger: "What accomplishment can Rhoades claim at MU? What positive impact?" (K.C. STAR, 7/14).
