By Ed McGranahan.
By Ed McGranahan
CLEMSON — As a class project eight years ago, students in a sports business course at the University of Georgia chose Dan Radakovich to be Auburn University’s new athletic director from 33 candidates.
Of the 27 in the class, 17 picked Radakovich, then senior associate athletic director at LSU, and pitched him to the Auburn president. According to a story published by UGA, they were impressed with his skills in budgeting, fund-raising, event management and marketing.
Those traits served him during an 18-year career as an administrator leading Georgia Tech to hire him as athletic director in 2006.
Radakovich will be introduced as Clemson University athletic director today at a 2 p.m. news conference. His reputation as an athletic administrator led Texas A&M and Tennessee to consider him most recently, but Clemson was able to seal the deal.
The Clemson Board of Trustees accepted President Jim Barker’s recommendation this morning and the Board’s compensation committee approved the parameters of the contract.
However, there will be questions about Radakovich’s tenure at Georgia Tech. Last year the NCAA placed the school on probation for four years and vacated its final three games in 2009, including its ACC Championship win over Clemson for using an ineligible player. The violations included issues in the men’s basketball program.
The NCAA found that Tech failed to cooperate and failed to fulfill its obligations as an NCAA member
According to an AP story, the NCAA said Georgia Tech should have declared receiver Demaryius Thomas ineligible after he accepted $312 worth of clothing in from former Yellow Jackets quarterback Calvin Booker, who was working for a sports agent. Radakovich was cited for breaking NCAA rules by alerting Coach Paul Johnson that Thomas and safety Morgan Burnett would be interviewed.
Radakovich defended his decision to tell Johnson, whom he hired.
“I think that’s where they feel (the investigation) started,” Radakovich said at the time. “I’ve been working with coaches for 25 years, and I think it’s important that you have a relationship with coaches. And while in this particular circumstance I should’ve picked up the telephone and made a call – and I probably could’ve convinced the (NCAA) individual that this was important for me to do. I’ve worked with other investigators who wouldn’t have had a problem with that, so I think that’s part of the other growth and understanding process you go through when you have these issues at hand.”
The basketball violations involved a youth basketball tournament held on campus in 2009 and again in 2010. A graduate coaching assistant helped administer both tournaments, violating NCAA prohibitions on scouting, and in 2010 an academic adviser for the team “evaluated prospects and reported his observations” to the coaching staff.
Coach Paul Hewitt was fired from Georgia Tech after the season then was hired by George Mason.
Radakovich has been widely acclaimed for upgrading Georgia Tech’s facilities including a new indoor football practice facility, softball stadium, tennis complex and the renovation of Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Previously an AD at American University, which he helped gain admission to the Patriot League, he also served as an administrator at South Carolina and Long Beach State. At LSU he was credited with helping oversee $90 million in renovations of the football stadium. And at South Carolina, under athletic director Mike McGee, he was a logistical cog in construction of the Colonial Center.
A native of Monaca, Pa., and graduate of Center High School near Aliquippa, he holds a bachelor degree from Indiana University in Pennsylvania where he played football and received a Masters from the University of Miami.