Syracuse announces Toledo’s Bryan Blair as next director of athletics
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 hired Bryan Blair as its next director of athletics, the university announced Thursday. Blair, 40, has served as Toledo’s vice president and director of athletics since 2022.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported that the university was targeting Blair Wednesday evening. The last step in Blair’s hiring was final board approval, which took place Thursday morning, Thamel reported.
“Syracuse University is one of the most iconic programs in college athletics, with a proud championship history, world-class academics and an incredibly passionate fan base,” Blair said of his hiring in a SU athletics press release Thursday. “The opportunity to lead Orange Athletics at this moment is incredibly exciting because the potential ahead is extraordinary.”
At the time of his hire at Toledo, Blair was the youngest Football Bowl Subdivision athletic director in the country. Under his leadership, the university 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 will 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.
“With the clear alignment and shared ambition of Chancellor Haynie, the Board of Trustees, our campus leadership, coaches, student-athletes, alumni and the entire Central New York community, we will build a modern athletics enterprise that competes for championships, elevates the Orange brand and positions Syracuse as a national leader in the future of college athletics,” Blair said in the release. “The best days of Syracuse Athletics are ahead of us, and I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the program to new levels of excellence.”
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.
“Bryan Blair is the athletics leader for this moment and for the future of Syracuse University,” Haynie said in the release. “He is a fierce competitor who knows how to build winning programs, a visionary who approaches the business of college athletics with genuine creativity and ingenuity, and a leader of exemplary character who understands that athletics exists to serve students and the broader University mission. He is exactly the right person to lead the new era of Syracuse University Athletics.”
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 will be tasked with helping transform Syracuse athletics during a pivotal time.
