Field slimmed in search for AD

The search for IU’s next athletics director has been narrowed to at most five people, IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said Monday.

But it could be some time until IU President Michael McRobbie picks Rick Greenspan’s successor.

“There’s no timetable,” MacIntyre said. “The president’s goal is to find the right person who’s going to do a great job, and he’s not concerned about how long it takes. He just wants to get the job done properly. It could be soon or it could be several weeks.”

MacIntyre did say McRobbie will make the decision by the time Greenspan steps down Dec. 31.

The process of finding the new athletics director has taken a large field of possible candidates and narrowed that field to “a handful of people,” MacIntyre said.

“There was a very detailed due diligence process,” he said.

MacIntyre said the candidates have had extensive screenings, and it’s now up to McRobbie to pick the ones he would like to interview.

“He will use as much time as he needs to complete that process,” MacIntyre said.
Several media outlets reported Bob De Carolis, athletics director at Oregon State, made the committee’s recent cut. But in a statement released this weekend, he refused to implicate himself in the process.

“At this time it would not be appropriate for me to respond to rumors and speculation about the position of director of athletics at Indiana University,” De Carolis said in a statement to the Oregonian, a newspaper in Portland, Ore. “Officials at Indiana University have a process for this position, and I want to respect it.

Therefore, I do not wish to make any comments that might directly or indirectly compromise this process.”

But Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson, presidential candidate Barack Obama’s brother-in-law, told reporters at practice that De Carolis traveled  for an interview, although it’s unclear with whom, according to several media reports.

In June, Greenspan announced he would be resigning at the end of the year. Greenspan’s announcement came the same day IU disclosed the NCAA levied a “failure to monitor” charge against the IU men’s basketball program in response to recruiting violations committed by former coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff.

-Sports editor Zachary Osterman contributed to this report.