UPDATE: Colorado started its search for a new athletic director nearly a month ago. It appears the search has reached its conclusion.
"Hearing Colorado could announce it has hired an athletic director today. My expectation is it will be Texas Rangers president Rick George," Kyle Ringo of the Boulder Daily Camera tweeted.
Colorado's expressed goal in the search was to find a candidate to "run the athletic department like a business." George may be the ideal candidate. George's official title with the Texas Rangers is president of business operations.
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Mike MacIntyre will enter his first season as Colorado's head football coach without the man who hired him supervising the school's athletic programs. Mike Bohn resigned as Colorado's athletic director last month.
University of Colorado chancellor Phil DiStefano believes the school's athletic program, particularly football, had to go in another direction.
"I made the decision that now is the time to bring in a strong leader to set a strategy that will step the department up to a new level of performance and fundraising and overall management," DiStefano told David Krause of the Denver Post. "I want an athletic director who will run the athletic department like a business."
Three candidates with "management and sports background" contacted the school according to Woody Paige of the Denver Post.
The move was due, in part, to the school's lack of success on the football field in recent years. Colorado may look for a candidate to replace Bohn with strong ties to MacIntyre.
"Interesting to watch CU AD search. Current Memphis AD Tom Bowen hired Mike MacIntyre at SJSU (they remain close) and is from Denver," Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News tweeted.
Bowen has been with Memphis for less than a year. He previously served at San Jose State from 2004 until spring of of last year.
Two more possibilities already familiar with the football program could develop into primary candidates to replace Bohn.
"(St. Louis) AD Chris May was there for 22 years before coming here in 2008. Wouldn't be surprised if his name comes up," Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Dispatch tweeted.
May is a logical replacement, but a prominent name around campus may also be under consideration.
"Prominent donor George Solich has become an integral part of the athletic department in recent years, both in the form of donations and to be a representative of its interests," William Whelan of BuffStampede.com noted. "When Butch Jones was in Boulder interviewing for the head coach position of the football program, it was Solich showing him around the facilities and campus. It was Solich making calls to the family, further selling them on Boulder.
"It was also Solich, or at least his relationship with Bohn, that got the now former athletic director fired."
Solich denied any interest in the position.
"Although I am flattered that some of you think I would be a good choice ... there are other people that would be far better candidates," Solich told Paige. "I care deeply about my alma mater, but ... I do not have interest in the position."