Massachusetts athletic director Ian McCaw has accepted the same position at Baylor.
McCaw, the outgoing chair of the NCAA Men’s Division I Ice Hockey Committee, also served as athletic director at Northeastern prior to joining UMass in the summer of 2002. He got his start in the mid-1980s as an assistant director of sports information at a third Hockey East school, Maine.
McCaw will be introduced at Baylor this afternoon. He succeeds Tom Stanton, who resigned in August.
Baylor has been hit hard by allegations of impropriety in its basketball program and the death of basketball player Patrick Dennehy. A teammate, Carlton Dotson, has been charged in Dennehy’s murder.
Head coach Dave Bliss also resigned in August, facing severe NCAA violations and possible legal charges.
McCaw takes over at a school facing a number of controversies in the wake of the scandal. Some say Baylor should cancel its basketball schedule this season. Others point to its struggling record in athletics lately while the only private school in the Big 12 as proof that it belongs elsewhere.
It is in stark contrast to UMass, where the most controversial issue during McCaw’s stay there may have been the school’s consideration of a different mascot to replace the Minuteman during this past offseason.
McCaw chaired the NCAA Men’s Division I Ice Hockey Committee in 2002-03, the year in which the tournament expanded from 12 to 16 teams and from two to four regional sites. His tenure on the committee ends this month, with Denver assistant AD Ron Grahame succeeding him as chair.
Besides UMass and Northeastern, McCaw also helped run the athletic department at Tulane as co-interim AD in 1996. The next year he took over at Northeastern, where he served for five years.
McCaw, a native of Burlington, Ontario, is a graduate of Laurentian University in Ontario and received his master’s degree from UMass.
UMass will begin its search for a replacement immediately.
