Husky Football Blog

Times reporter Bob Condotta keeps the news coming about the Montlake Dawgs.

E-mail Bob| Husky Football forum | Subscribe | Blog Home

July 30, 2008 11:31 AM

Is Ted Leland likely the next Pac-10 commissioner?

That's what the New York Times says in this post here today on its college sports blog.

The Times says the Pac-10 "appears to be leaning toward'' hiring Leland, who was the athletic director at Stanford from 1991-2005 --- here's a good bio of Leland noting his current role as the vice president for advancement at Pacific.

As you can probably surmise from that timeline, among Leland's most notable hires while AD at Stanford was picking Tyrone Willingham to succeed Bill Walsh as football coach in 1995. I talked with Leland about that decision for this story in 2005. Leland also hired Walsh, having worked as an assistant for Walsh on the coaching staff at Stanford in 1978.

Here's another story on Leland, when he announced his resignation at Stanford in 2005, that also has more biographical info.

Leland is 60 years old and obviously has a long track record in the conference, so this may not exactly be the "fresh, new face'' type of hire that a lot of the critics of the Pac-10 may have had in mind when Tom Hansen announced his retirement earlier this summer.

If the Pac-10 has indeed set its sights on Leland, that would go along with earlier rumblings I had heard that the conference wanted to make a hire pretty quickly. Hansen will stay in office through next July 1 but has said he would work alongside a new AD to help in the transition.

The final decision on a new commissioner will be made by the conference's presidents and chancellors.

Digg | Newsvine