Just heard and it’ll be made public this afternoon that Renee Baumgartner is stepping down as AD. Apparently there’s a lot of family members with health issues that she would like to focus her time on. Super surprising news
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That is. Especially given her new appointment to the NCAA selection committee. Sorry to hear about family health issues.
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Announcement below. Staci Gustafson takes over as interim AD. A search for a replacement will begin immediately. I have to think that the job, while still very much running a mid-major institution, is a lot more attractive post-Renee than it was before and hopefully the candidates reflect that.
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Thank you Renee for all good work! Good luck with your family issues and your career.
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Very sorry to hear about family issues. Focus on what is important, Renee, and I hope things work out for the best. Thanks for all you have done for SCU!
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All the best to Renee and family.
I wonder about this. Definitely more attractive, but I wonder if the uncertainty of college sports at the mid major level gives folks pause.
I am probably overthinking it. 
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Don’t know about overthinking it but I wish her the best. I do believe she helped the mens basketball program and the facility improvements necessary for all sports. In my limited contact with her at Bronco Bench Golf Tournaments she was very nice and outgoing to all in our group. Women’s soccer has been Jerry Smiths work of art but in the other areas I give her credit. The whole NIL and transfer portal routine makes it more difficult to survive but we have improved under her leadership. Wish her and her family the best. She may have aging parents who need more care or some other issues and I totally support that family comes first. Her comments do not seem to indicate she has other plans in running sports programs. What this means for the NCAA basketball selection committee I do not know, but I respect her decision. I hope we can find another AD who can do as good a job and help Bronco sports survive in these tumultuous times
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We were lucky to have her. I wish her the very best.
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Anybody hearing any rumors on Renee’s replacement? Anything about the process/timeline?
I would suspect someone that President Sullivan has connections to would be the front-runner, but her background at smaller schools might stunt such a concept. Given Renee came from Oregon, it could be that is the watermark.
Whoever it is, will be interesting how the change will impact under-achieving coaches…
Any update on the AD position? Is this an extended trial run for the interim AD? Or waiting on another candidate? Seems to be taking longer than the typical AD search.
I’ve heard the committee has narrowed it down to 3 candidates. There’s some friction between the coaches & university administrators on the committee on which choice is the best. Seems like the coaches agree on one candidate and the officials agreed on another. But it all comes down to Julie Sullivan’s choice. Whether or not she follows the committee’s recommendation we should see.
They’ve worked with a search firm and have heard that several people who were interviewed had no interest in the SCU AD job but wanted to use it as leverage for their current positions. That’s contributed to the length of this process.
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Thanks for the intel. Now I’m more interested to hear the outcome…
I was at a funeral yesterday at SCU and got some more news. The search is back to square one and they have no candidates at the moment.
They offered the position to one candidate, flew him & his family to campus. Towards the end of the campus visit, his wife said he would not be taking the position. I was told she was unimpressed with the campus, the facilities and the Athletic Director’s house.
The committee didn’t want to settle on either of the remaining two candidates so decided to reopen the search.
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Hmmm…I can’t speak to the AD’s house, but I’ve never heard anyone use the word “unimpressed” to describe the SCU campus, even those that did not attend Santa Clara.
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Sounds weird. Other than an idiosyncratic opinion, I can only interpret this as SCU going after folks with significant high major experience, looking for high major facilities. So maybe the candidate pool is elevated but in a way that is making it hard to find a good fit.
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That was my thought as well @PattyMac
So, his wife makes his professional choices and apparently speaks for him. lol.
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The one thought I’ve had when they started this process: With the flux of College Athletics, why would you leave a high major to go to a “mid major” school.
I would want to be connected to a power conference football school.
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