The active pool being considered to replace outgoing Athletic Director Skip Bertman shifted from six to eight candidates Friday afternoon. Jack Weiss, search committee chairperson and Paul M. Hebert Law Center chancellor, announced just before the search committee’s meeting that Liberty University Athletic Director Jeff Barber and San Jose State Athletic Director Tom Bowen removed their names from consideration for the position. “I don’t know the reasons,” Weiss said. “I just know that they’re no longer applying for the job.” Moments into the meeting, committee member Collis Temple Jr. moved to have four new candidates – Florida Atlantic Athletic Director Craig Angelos, LSU senior associate athletic directors Mark Ewing and Herb Vincent and former Central Florida Deputy Athletic Director William Weidner – be placed in the active pool of candidates. The seven committee members present unanimously voted in favor of the motion. While their votes did not apply toward the official count, three members taking part in the meeting via conference call agreed with the consensus. The committee spent the remainder of the meeting focusing on how they will continue the search process. “It’s certainly for us to decide – when we get to the point where we decide who we want to bring to the campus – what the campus visit will entail,” Weiss said. “My own view is that typically it would entail meeting with various constituencies, including people in the athletic department. That’s what the usual process is here.” Temple suggested the committee also meet with Bertman to gain insight on his ideas of what makes a good athletic director. Weiss said he will ask Bertman to attend the committee’s next meeting to voice his opinion. Though, Weiss said he wants to be sure the meeting with Bertman does not send the wrong message. “We have to be careful here that we don’t communicate directly or indirectly to any of these candidates that they are coming in here with their hands tied in terms of future direction of the department,” Weiss said. “We can all benefit from Skip’s views, but we don’t want to confuse any prospective applicants for the job.” Bertman, who has been athletic director since 2001, resigns at the end of June and will stay with the University as athletic director emeritus through 2010. The committee is attempting to handle the situation carefully, especially considering Bertman’s continued presence at LSU . “We don’t want to send the message in any way that the next person who gets this job is anything less than athletic director,” said committee member Markham McKnight.
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]