The most hated school in the land Boston College Eagles announced today that Brad Bates will be their next Athletic Director after 10 years in the same position at Miami. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Miami doesn’t exactly like Boston College because of recent hockey defeats at the hands of the Eagles.

As the Miami Athletic department scrambles to find a new Athletic Director and faculty member (he taught undergrad and graduate courses in sports administration), let’s take a look back at a few highlights in Brad Bates’ 10 years in Oxford.

• November 2002 – hired on as Miami’s Athletic Director
• Football:
  • Back-to-back football bowl game appearances in nearly 30 years (2003-04)
  • MAC Championships in Football in 2003 and 2010
  • Hiring and firing of Shane Montgomery after a couple years we’d like to forget
  • Hiring of Mike Heywood and later the hiring of the current regime at Yager Stadium including Don Treadwell
• Ice Hockey:
  • Our beloved hockey team won a Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular season championship and Miami’s first Mason Cup as CCHA tournament champions.
  • Appeared in two consecutive NCAA Frozen Fours, including the national championship game in 2009.
• On the hardwood, Bates was highly criticized for allowing Charlie Coles to stay in Oxford until his retirement last year, and has recently hired John Cooper as Coles’ replacement.
• 14 of Miami’s 18 teams won at least one conference championship: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, women’s cross-country, football, field hockey, ice hockey, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming, women’s swimming, synchronized skating, women’s tennis and volleyball
• Bates also helped raise student-athlete graduation rates. His overall Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 89 percent in 2011 was near the top in the nation.
• October 9, 2012 – hired as Boston College’s Athletic Director

With Miami’s search will also come some uncertainty from Oxford. Of course, there’s the issue of replacing Bates with new blood, but several other questions are also raised.

• Will Miami’s commitment to the hockey program continue? Will funding be pulled because Miami Hockey is roughly a break-even sport?
• How will this impact our commitment to the NCHC?
• Will the new man on campus put a renewed focus on basketball and football where it is sorely needed?
• With a new AD, the possibility exists that existing coaches will be less than pleased with the new leadership. Is this the push Coach Blasi needs to jump to another hockey program, or perhaps the NHL?

And one final note…

Does anyone else think that Brad is awfully excited to get out of Oxford? Before his press conference today, Brad had already created his new twitter handle (@BCBradBates), he met the hockey team before their practice today, and then spoke to their 1-4 football team after their practice. I’m not saying good riddance, but good riddance.

Let the search begin. We suspect Steve Cady may be a leading candidate, and some have suggested that Jason Lener may be near the top of the list as well.  Lener is a former RedHawk Deputy Athletic Director and current Illinois Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director. In any event, we hope that the next guy for the job is a hockey fan!