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Kansas has employed Northwestern administrator Travis Goff, a Sunflower State native who graduated from the college, to be its subsequent athletic director throughout a vital second for its soccer program and high-profile males’s basketball program.
The college introduced the hiring Monday evening, shortly after reaching a cope with Goff to return to Lawrence. He might be launched Wednesday throughout an on-campus occasion on the Lied Heart.
“With a protracted historical past of success, unwavering partnership with campus leaders and the unparalleled ardour of the Jayhawk fanbase, this is likely one of the most humbling obligations and alternatives in school athletics,” mentioned Goff, who grew up within the southwestern Kansas city of Dodge Metropolis. “I’m thrilled to return to Lawrence with my household and to proceed to make this division a degree of pleasure for our whole college.”
Goff has has been at Northwestern since 2012, most lately as deputy athletic director and assistant vp for improvement. He performed a key function in fundraising that led to huge services upgrades at Northwestern and oversaw the baseball, volleyball and soccer applications – expertise that may turn out to be useful at Kansas.
“We’re lucky to have Travis return to Lawrence to guide our division and after talking with him, it’s clear he’s precisely what we want,” basketball coach Invoice Self mentioned. “He might be an amazing associate to all of our head coaches and sports activities applications and can be sure that our student-athletes have a world-class expertise.”
Kansas has been looking for an athletic director since Jeff Lengthy resigned nearly a month in the past.
Lengthy was answerable for hiring Les Miles, with whom the college parted methods amid sexual misconduct allegations courting to the soccer coach’s time at LSU. Lengthy initially mentioned he would lead the seek for Miles’ alternative, however criticism concerning the due diligence he did in hiring his longtime good friend compelled him to rethink and finally resign.
Goff’s first massive process might be to set the course for a moribund soccer program already going by way of spring apply below huge receivers coach Emmett Jones, picked to function the interim coach final month.
The downtrodden Jayhawks misplaced all 9 of their video games final season. They haven’t had a profitable season since Mark Mangino was on the sideline in 2008, biking by way of Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, interim coach Clint Bowen, David Beaty and Miles with out discovering a approach to return to prominence.
Goff is predicted to guide the seek for the subsequent soccer coach, although the timeline for that hiring stays unclear.
Together with deep-seated fan apathy, the Jayhawks have among the worst services within the Large 12 – regardless of a brand new indoor apply facility – and have struggled for years to generate cash and help to improve Memorial Stadium.
Goff additionally should cope with potential NCAA sanctions going through the Jayhawks’ storied basketball program.
This system was hit with 5 Degree I prices tied to recruiting, one directed at Self, as a part of the fallout of an FBI investigation into school basketball corruption. Kansas has staunchly defended itself in opposition to the allegations, and the case goes by way of the NCAA’s new impartial appeals course of, with a choice anticipated later this yr.
“Travis understands the challenges we face and the altering panorama of collegiate athletics,” Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod mentioned. “On the similar time, he’s well-positioned to assist us construct on our current successes in student-athlete well being care, variety and inclusion, and student-athlete educational achievement. The truth that he’s a Jayhawk is an added bonus.”
Goff returns to Lawrence having labored below former Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips, who left the college within the Chicago suburb of Evanston earlier this yr to grow to be Atlantic Coast Convention commissioner.
Goff graduated from KU in 2002 with levels in journalism and sociology, then earned an MBA from Tulane, the place he labored as affiliate athletic director for exterior affairs.
He’s the sixth athletic director for the Jayhawks since Bob Frederick retired in 2001.
“Once you develop up in Dodge Metropolis like Travis and I did, you get to know everybody,” Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork mentioned. “I’ve been lucky to know Travis and his first-class household for greater than 30 years, and it’s so thrilling to see him grow to be the athletics director at Kansas. As each of us have advanced in school athletics, we have now grow to be nice buddies. I’ve at all times identified at the present time would come for Travis on the proper time and the suitable place.”
Kansas hires Northwestern administrator Goff as subsequent AD initially appeared on NBCSports.com
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