Bryan Blair talks working with SU Chancellor-elect Haynie at intro presser
Incoming Syracuse Director of Athletics Bryan Blair discussed his excitement to work with Chancellor-elect Mike Haynie at his introductory press conference Thursday. Avery Magee | Photo Editor
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When Bryan Blair started interviewing for Syracuse’s director of athletics position, the university didn’t have a new chancellor selected. So, after Blair finished his first phone call with SU’s AD search committee, a giant question bounced around the 41-year-old’s brain.
“I’m trying to figure out, ‘OK, who’s my boss?’” Blair said.
But when Blair saw the news on March 3 — when Syracuse University named Mike Haynie as its 13th chancellor — his vision became clearer. Through a few seconds of research, Blair knew Haynie would be someone who prioritizes athletic excellence. He then watched Haynie’s introductory presser, where the chancellor-elect brought up his intended commitment toward sports a myriad of times. “We’re all-in,” Haynie said.
Before meeting Haynie, Blair figured the two would make a great partnership. His inference was affirmed after their first few early conversations together.
“It was clear that he gets it,” Blair said of Haynie’s mindset toward investing in SU’s athletic programs. “What I’ve noticed here also has been the alignment from the top of the board, all the way to the coaches, there’s an understanding and an urgency to make sure we get this right.”
For Blair — Syracuse’s newly-hired AD who plans to go heavy on NIL funding to revitalize the university’s athletic scene — he believes Haynie will provide him the necessary assistance to accomplish his lofty goals. The two are already “locked at the hip,” Blair said, even though neither of them officially begins their tenures until the summer, when current SU Chancellor Kent Syverud and Director of Athletics John Wildhack will retire from their roles.
In Thursday’s introductory event for Blair held at SU’s Miron Victory Court, it was clear the Blair-Haynie partnership is strong. They are a crucial tandem who can spur future success across Syracuse’s athletic programs, and in terms of having their goals aligned, they’re off to a splendid start.
“What was I looking for in Syracuse University’s next athletic director? I was looking for somebody who looks at the sky and doesn’t see the ceiling,” Haynie said of Blair. “We need an athletic director who will shape the moment and bend that moment to our will, and that’s who Brian is.”
“What caught my eye (about Haynie) was his history of innovation and bringing things together that didn’t exist before he got there,” Blair said of Haynie. “And it takes a special leader to have a vision cast before other people see it.”
Earlier Thursday morning, Blair walked inside SU’s National Veterans Resource Center — a state-of-the-art building that Haynie was integral in creating. Blair was taken aback by how much detail went into the project and how Haynie, a veteran himself, spurred a project from the ground up about something that’s meaningful to him.
Blair values innovation. After all, that’s his background. He’s the man who revolutionized Toledo’s NIL funding during his four years as its athletic director.
He saw a similar body of work in Haynie.
“Your spirit in innovation, that’s inspiring for me,” Blair said at Thursday’s presser, talking directly to Haynie. “That’s the kind of person you want to be around.”
In their initial discussions, Blair and Haynie learned an obvious quality about one another: they love winning. Of course, so does everybody. But part of what drew Haynie toward picking Blair was his stellar track record running Toledo’s Athletic Department since 2022.
The Rockets earned three straight Mid-American Conference athletic department of the year awards under Blair, and have won 16 MAC titles across all Division I sports. Particularly, in both men’s and women’s basketball as well as football, Toledo stood out as the class of the MAC under Blair’s guidance.
“That’s not a coincidence. That is a culture,” Haynie said of Blair’s success at Toledo. “That is leadership.”
What impressed Haynie just as equally was how equipped Blair is to handle the madness that is modern-day college sports. As someone who built a mid-major university in Toledo into the most NIL-savvy school in the MAC, Blair brings evidence to show he can make an even larger impact at a place like Syracuse — which inherently has more resources than Toledo.
“He’s never really known a world without NIL or a transfer portal or revenue sharing,” Haynie said of Blair.
Blair and Haynie’s shared mentality around NIL spending was blunt: SU will no longer sit behind the nation’s best of the best.
“We are going to attack revenue sharing, and we are going to attack NIL,” Blair said. “(If) we don’t have talented student athletes, we can’t be competitive. We can’t drive the commercial enterprise to feed this entire ecosystem. We’ve got to be crystal clear on that.”
Blair and Haynie’s first task in their new roles is a big one. They need to hire a new men’s basketball coach after Syracuse fired Adrian Autry to end the 2025-26 season. Blair declined to get into specifics about the coaching search, but he said the process is ongoing and should have a resolution “soon.”
“Collectively, we all understand what the moment is,” Blair said of working with Haynie and Wildhack to choose a men’s basketball coach.
This hire is a crucial one, both Blair and Haynie acknowledged. They know it could set the course for their respective tenures at SU, whether positively or negatively. But as Haynie said on Thursday, there’s no one he’d rather have leading the search process than Blair, who he believes will energize and modernize Syracuse into a golden era of athletic performance.
“I know Bryan will rally that support,” Haynie said. “I know we will bring energy and creativity and professionalism and character to every corner of this program.”
