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New deal for Floyd as Ballard retools AD
search
By Al Myatt
Bonesville.net staff writer
Payback isn't necessarily a
bad thing. It should suit Nick Floyd just fine.
Floyd has been serving as East
Carolina's athletics director on an interim basis for the past scholastic
year while receiving pay based on his position as ECU's senior associate
athletics director. That will change, according to chancellor Steve Ballard,
who announced on Monday that Floyd will continue to serve as AD until the
position is filled with the assistance of a newly-named task force.
Floyd has been serving in an
interim capacity since former AD Mike Hamrick left in August of 2003 to
become AD at Nevada-Las Vegas.
"Nick has provided top-notch
leadership for Pirate athletics since last fall," Ballard said in a
university statement. "I am delighted that he has agreed to remain at the
university in this capacity."
Ballard said that Floyd's
total compensation package for the coming year will be $250,000, a figure
that is intended to compensate him for his work as interim AD since last
August as well as to make his salary comparable to that of other athletics
directors in Conference USA.
"I'm pleased to continue
serving the department and the university," Floyd said. "The future is very
bright for East Carolina athletics. We're looking forward with great
anticipation to the coming year."
Floyd, who was one of three
finalists in the initial search for a permanent AD, had withdrawn his name
last month but is welcome to pursue the position, Ballard said.
"I'm not going to speculate on
the future," Floyd said. "We're going to concentrate on the task at hand."
The initial search also
produced South Carolina associate AD Jeff Barber, an ECU alumnus who heads
the Gamecock Club, and former Air Force AD Randall Spetman as finalists.
Ballard interviewed all three finalists but did not offer the position.
Barber withdrew from consideration earlier this month. Ballard announced in
May his plans to extend the search process.
Floyd graduated Clemson in
1982 and has a Masters degree in business administration from Ole Miss. He
spent 12 years in athletics administration at Southern Miss, including five
as senior associate AD before becoming chief financial officer for
Conference USA for three years. He has worked in athletics administration at
ECU for three years. His father, the late Ralph Floyd, was AD at Indiana.
The new chancellor said the
search for ECU's AD will continue with the assistance of a seven-member task
force composed primarily of members of the initial 14-member AD search
committee.
Ballard said the smaller task
force will allow more flexibility in assessing potential candidates for the
job. Members of the task force include Ballard; ECU trustees Jim Talton,
Steve Showfety, Margaret Ward and Dan Kinlaw; John Hudson, a member of the
ECU Foundation board; and John Thompson, head football coach.
All but Thompson and Ballard
are members of the AD search committee, which will continue to provide
oversight and advice and will interview finalists for the position, Ballard
said.
Ballard did not set a
timetable for selecting a new AD.
"Finding the right person is
more important than meeting a particular schedule, but we do intend to move
aggressively," he said.
Ballard has said he is looking
for an AD who fits his leadership style. Experience and a passion for ECU
athletics as well as connections to possibly improve ECU's conference
affiliation are other factors.
Ballard has examined hiring a
consultant to assist in the search process. Bill Carr, a center at Florida
when Steve Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy, has been considered as a
possibility but a source indicated that Kinlaw and Ward raised questions
about him because of his association with Gene Corrigan, who conducted an
evaluation of the athletics program in 2002. Two other consulting firms are
also being considered.
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Bonesville.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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02/23/2007 11:47:55 AM
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