Take Five: Florida finds new athletic director in MSU's Stricklin
After the search for a replacement for retiring athletic director Jeremy Foley took more than three months, the Gators have reportedly found their new athletic director.
UF is expected to name Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin to the same position at Florida, with a press conference coming Tuesday, according to a report from USA Today’s Dan Wolken. Florida moved its basketball media day from Tuesday to Oct. 6 due to a “scheduling conflict,” according to a UF spokesperson.
With Stricklin, 46, set to replace Foley, the Gators’ long-time athletics director from 1992-2016, Inside the Gators now takes a closer look at his replacement with a Take Five.
FIVE NOTABLE STOPS ON STRICKLIN’S RESUME
1. Stricklin has been serving as Mississippi State’s athletic director since May 2010, when he took over for Greg Byrne, who left to accept the AD job at Arizona. Interestingly enough, Florida reportedly considered Byrne during its search process. Stricklin was Mississippi State’s senior associate athletics director for external affairs for two years before his promotion.
2. Prior to re-joining Mississippi State, his alma mater, Stricklin spent five seasons at Kentucky from 2003-08 as its associate athletic director for media relations.
3. Before his run in Starkville, Stricklin worked as Baylor’s assistant AD for communications and marketing from 1999-2003.
4. Stricklin left Auburn in 1998 to become Tulane’s assistant athletics director for a short stint, where he served as the school’s primary media contact for the football team.
5. Sticklin has three SEC schools on his resume, as he spent 1993-98 as Auburn’s associate media relations director.
FIVE OF STRICKLIN’S FACILITIES ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT MISSISSIPPI STATE
1. Under Stricklin's watch, $75 million in expansion and upgrades to Davis Wade Stadium were completed prior to the start of the 2014 season. The renovation pushed the stadium's capacity to 61,337, making it the largest on-campus football stadium in the state of Mississippi.
2. Stricklin played a key role in the addition of the 80,000-square foot Leo W. Seal Jr. Football Complex, which opened in 2013, for Dan Mullen's program. The project cost the school about $25 million.
3. The Mississippi State basketball programs saw the addition of the $11.7 million Mize Pavilion at Humphrey Coliseum, a new practice facility for its teams, in 2011 under Stricklin's guidance.
4. Mississippi State currently has a plan set for an upgrade of the baseball team's Dudy Noble Field, which was driven during Stricklin's time with the school. The renovation project may reportedly reach $55 million and could take off in the upcoming years.
5. During Stricklin's tenure, MSU also drove a $6 million renovation project for both the tennis and softball complexes. Construction for the $2.2 million Mississippi State Golf Center at Old Waverly is close to completion.
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FIVE OF THE MSU PROGRAM'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS UNDER STRICKLIN
1. The Mississippi State football program has been to five consecutive bowl games under Dan Mullen's leadership since Stricklin took over as AD in 2010. The team had its best season in 2014, where the Dak Prescott-led Bulldogs went 10-3 and finished second in the SEC West with a 6-2 conference record. MSU was ranked No. 1 for a span of five consecutive weeks in the 2014 season - the first time in program history.
2. Under Stricklin's watch as AD, the MSU baseball program won an SEC tournament tile in 2012 and then a regular-season conference championship in 2016.The Bulldogs have gone 284-203-1 under head coach John Cohen, who was hired in 2009 before Stricklin was promoted.
3. In 2013, the baseball team finished as a College World Series runner-up to UCLA. Overall, the group finished 51-20 (16-14 SEC) that year.
4. During the 2014-15 academic year, 11 Mississippi State sports advanced to NCAA postseason play, as eight earned top-25 rankings during the season.
5. MSU's athletes finished with their highest combined GPA of 3.0 in school history during the 2014-15 year. In 2015, the Bulldogs excelled in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, as 16 sports exceeded the minimum standard.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT STRICKLIN
1. During his time at MSU, Stricklin played a big part in the school's relationship with Adidas. In 2014, Mississippi State announced a seven-year extension with Adidas worth more than $17 million.
2. Stricklin and Mississippi State received criticism from the national media this summer with how they handled the suspension of freshman defensive end Jeffery Simmons, who was suspended for one game following an arrest in March on misdemeanor assault charges. A video surfaced online that showed Simmons punching a woman.
3. Stricklin reportedly made "about $500,000" annually at Mississippi State.
4. Mullen, who joined the school in 2009, was already in place before Stricklin was promoted to athletic director in May 2010. However, Stricklin was AD when the Bulldogs hired former UCLA head coach Ben Howland as their men's basketball coach in 2015.
5. Stricklin serves as chair of the SEC's Working Group on Fan Experience and has served as the conference's representative on the NCAA Division I Leadership Council.
FIVE FUN FACTS ABOUT STRICKLIN
1. Stricklin was named an Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year for 2015-16. He was one of four FBS ADs selected, joining Iowa's Gary Barta, Northwestern's Jim Phillips and San Diego State's Jim Sterk.
2. Stricklin is a 1992 Mississippi State graduate. After serving as a media contact for MSU's baseball program from 1990-92, upon his graduation Stricklin was promoted as an assistant media relations director.
3. The 46-year-old Stricklin is married to Anne Howell, the youngest daughter of College Basketball Hall of Famer Bailey Howell, who played at MSU from 1956-59. The couple has two daughters, Abby and Sophie.
4. Stricklin is an active personality on Twitter. Currently, his account (@stricklinMSU) has about 56,000 followers and counting.
5. In the past, Stricklin has apparently had some interaction with Texas Sen. and former GOP candidate Ted Cruz.