Penn State Hires Former California Athletic Director To Lead Program
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State has hired Sandy Barbour as athletic director, a month after she stepped down as AD at the University of California-Berkeley.
The 54-year-old Barbour replaces David Joyner, who announced he was resigning last month. Joyner took over at Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and held the job for two and a half years.
Barbour was given a five-year contract that pays $700,000 per year with potential bonuses worth a potential additional $200,000 per year.
At a news conference Saturday, new Penn State president Eric Barron said Barbour was the unanimous choice of the university's screening committee.
Barbour spent 10 years at Cal and oversaw 19 team national championships, 92 titles in individual events, a Pac-10 co-championship in football, the first men's basketball conference title in 50 years and the first Final Four trip for the women's basketball team.
But her tenure was not without its troubles. Cal had the lowest graduation rate for football players among major conference teams, according to data released by the NCAA last fall. In 2010, she approved cutting baseball, women's lacrosse and men's and women's gymnastics because of budget concerns. Each of those four sports ultimately received private financial backing to retain varsity status.
She had previous athletic administrative stints as assistant AD at Notre Dame and AD at Tulane.
At Penn State, Barbour will oversee 31 varsity sports including a football program that remains on NCAA probation that includes no postseason bowl-game participation through the 2015 season.
The university also has been fined $60 million by the NCAA because of the Sandusky scandal and the athletic department is making five payments of $12 million each.
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