Ole Miss athletic director search committee has been announced. Here’s who will make the decision

The University of Mississippi and new chancellor Glenn Boyce have announced their search committee to find Ross Bjork’s replacement for athletic director. Boyce launched the search for a new vice chancellor for intercollegiate athletics formally today, as first reported by the Daily Journal’s Parrish Alford, by announcing the members of the search committee, scheduling the first committee meeting and setting expectations for the search.

The search committee will be chaired by Ole Miss alumnus and retired FedEx executive Mike Glenn of Memphis, who served as a co-chair for the director of athletics search in 2012 when Ole Miss hired Hugh Freeze.

Keith Carter was named interim director of athletics five months ago when Bjork left for the same job at Texas A&M University and has since been “running things” in Oxford. Carter actually made some waves when he made the decision not to roll over head baseball coach Mike Bianco’s contract last week, as reported by Rival’s Chase Parham.

Sure, this committee might be filled with former Rebels and the “GOB network” might have a stranglehold on this search as well, but here at the Cup, we are going to hold out hope that at some point the Rebels will fail upwards and it will work out.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is from a statement provided to Red Cup Rebellion from the University of Mississippi athletic department

The committee includes representation from the faculty, alumni and the M-Club. Members of the search committee, all of whom are Ole Miss alumni, include:

• David Dellucci, a former Ole Miss All-American baseball player who enjoyed a 13-year Major League career and works as an analyst for the SEC Network. Dellucci lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Peggie Gillom-Granderson, legendary Ole Miss women’s basketball star and long-time coach, who lives in Oxford and serves as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ women’s chaplain at Ole Miss.
• Jesse Mitchell, former Ole Miss football player and past president of the University of Mississippi M-Club, who is founding partner of The Mitchell Firm, PLLC in Ridgeland.
• David Morris, former Ole Miss football player and founder of QB Country, an athletic training and development company headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, that trains NFL, college, high school and middle school quarterbacks in 10 cities across the Southeast.
• Ron Rychlak, professor of law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he has been on the faculty since 1987. Since 2007, Rychlak has served as the university’s faculty athletic representative and chair of the University Standing Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics. He also serves on the Athletics Diversity Committee and the Athletic Compliance Committee, which he chaired for almost 10 years.
• Wesley Walls, former Ole Miss football player, who went on to play 15 seasons in the National Football League and was a five-time Pro Bowler. Walls is a development partner at Collett, a commercial real estate firm in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ole Miss football legend Archie Manning has agreed to serve in an advisory capacity to the committee and Chancellor Boyce.

”On behalf of the search committee, we are honored to be involved in this process designed to identify the best person to serve the university in this key leadership role,” chair Mike Glenn said. “We have been charged by Chancellor Boyce to find someone with integrity, proven leadership in athletics, excellent management and interpersonal skills as well as someone who can be the public face of the university’s athletics department.”

While a specific timetable for the search has not been established, the search committee will move forward expeditiously with its work. The committee will recommend a candidate to Chancellor Boyce, who said a search firm will be retained to ensure a strong candidate pool and help the search committee move quickly.

”I have spoken to each of the search committee members, and they are ready to get to work in finding the right person to lead Ole Miss Athletics,” Boyce said. “The entire committee is committed to ensuring that we have the strongest pool of candidates.”

Sound off in the comments below with who you want for athletic director and/or how you think this search will go.