Syracuse reportedly set to hire Toledo’s Bryan Blair as new AD
Syracuse is targeting Bryan Blair as its next director of athletics, Pete Thamel first reported Wednesday evening. Blair, 40, has served as Toledo’s vice president and director of athletics since 2022. Zabdyl Koffa | Staff Photographer
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Syracuse has agreed to terms to make Bryan Blair its next director of athletics, Pete Thamel first reported Wednesday evening. Blair, 40, has served as Toledo’s vice president and director of athletics since 2022.
The last step in Blair’s hiring is final board approval, which is expected to take place Thursday, Thamel reported. Then, Blair is expected to be announced by the university soon after, Thamel reported.
At the time of his hire, Blair will be among the youngest Football Bowl Subdivision athletic directors in the country. Under his leadership, Toledo became the first Mid-American Conference school with a name, image and likeness collective, the first to partner with Campus Ink for exclusive NIL apparel and the first to deliver national brand deals with Powerade and auto partners for women’s basketball.
Blair would take over for John Wildhack on July 1, who held the position for the last 10 years before announcing his retirement on Feb. 11. His reported hiring also comes eight days after Syracuse named Mike Haynie its chancellor-elect. Haynie will take over for Kent Syverud — who is departing to become the University of Michigan’s next president — on July 1.
A seven-person committee, which includes Steve Ballentine, John Lally, Raquel-Ann Nurse McNabb, Mike Tirico, Ian McIntyre, Sarah Scalese and Gabe Nugent, helped decide on Blair. Heather Lyke, Syracuse’s special advisor to the chancellor and director of athletics, and Nick Carparelli, a Football Bowl Subdivision executive, were also rumored candidates for the vacancy.
The committee’s selection of Blair comes hours after SU fired men’s basketball head coach Adrian Autry, general manager Alex Kline and the entirety of its assistant coaching staff. The Orange just registered their second consecutive losing season, which extended their NCAA Tournament drought to five years.
Under Blair’s leadership, Toledo men’s basketball has an 82-49 record over the last four seasons and hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament. However, the Rockets have had one of the best mid-major football programs, making a bowl game in each of the last four seasons while accumulating a 36-18 record.
SU’s football program, which hired former Toledo defensive coordinator Vince Kehres for the same position, won 10 games in Fran Brown’s first season before suffering a 3-9 campaign last year.
Before working for Toledo, Blair — a 2007 graduate from Wofford College and earned his law degree from South Carolina in 2010 — was a deputy athletic director and chief operating officer at Washington State from 2018-22.
He began his career as an academic and membership affairs postgraduate intern for the NCAA, later working as a compliance coordinator for Rice from 2011-12 and as an assistant director of compliance services for South Carolina from 2012-14.
His last job before joining WSU’s athletic department was as a senior associate athletic director at Rice from 2014-18.
Now, Blair would be tasked with helping transform Syracuse athletics during a pivotal time.
