Well darn. He is a young guy and with his skill set he will continue to advance his career. Many of us have braced ourselves for this and anticipated it would eventually happen. I wish him and his family all the best. He will be a tough act to follow.

Although this is not surprising, given how highly regarded he has become on the national level, losing Blue is a huge bummer. He has been a perfect fit for UC Davis Athletics: highly intelligent, visionary and very personable. He'll no doubt do great things for Golf Canada and he'll be greatly missed here regardless of who they select as a new AD.

It looks like Rocko is leading the search committee. That’s unfortunate, I’d like to see him as an applicant.

Terry Tumey? s/

Blue got us the much needed athletic performance facility. Awesome.

Blue was a great success for UCD. Best of luck, sucks to see him go eh?

Lots of praise for Blue's accomplishments in a short period of time at UCD (from today's Davis Enterprise article):

Carrell said the Aggie EVO career-launch program and the Edwards Family Athletic Center are Blue’s crowning achievements:

“For that center, he raised about $52 million, which if you talked to people who have been around UC Davis for a long time, they’d have said (before Blue) it would have been an impossible feat … particularly in such a short amount of time.

Jim Les, in his 10th season as Aggie men’s basketball coach, had this to say:

“From a personal standpoint — and this is a widespread feeling in this department, showing how much he is loved and appreciated — we couldn’t be happier for him.

“He gets to chase his passion: golf. He gets to go back home and be around family. For those reasons, we couldn’t be happier for someone we respect and admire.

“But from the professional standpoint, we’re sad because we’re losing such an extraordinary leader. A guy who, in a short period of time, has really put his stamp not only on athletics, but on UC Davis and our community.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggie-ad-blues-legacy-draws-praise-for-far-reaching-gains/

The APF will cost $52 M?

Yes, cost includes 45,000 square foot building, natural turf practice field, and renovation of existing locker rooms in Aggie Stadium. Being in the business, this does seem a little high unless there is some unusual mitigation on the site.

I would assume that there is a significant cost for the all the the furnishings for offices and meeting rooms and all the medical and training equipment. State of the art sports medicine equipment must be quite expensive.

Finishes can make a huge difference. Looking at comps adjusted for inflation, similar facilities at Montana $280/sf, Sac State $450/sf, UCLA $950/sf, UCD $1150/sf - but it’s not exactly apples to apples because the others didn’t include a practice field. Not out of line if it’s PAC12 level finishes. If it’s more modest finishes, there might have been a hidden driver, like utilities or drainage or something.

So ballpark of UCLA which already had a practice field. It doesn't seem terribly unreasonable to me at that point; not that I really know how much more arduous the building and environmental requirements are between LA and Davis. Also, I don't fully understand the scope of the Bob Foster center renovations; if those are substantial that complicates the cost/sf estimates I imagine.

Looking up pictures of the other facilities, parts of Montana's has a bit of a "warehouse" feel; less so for the others.

I think the goal this project is for it to be a state of the art facility for sports medicine that benefits not only Aggie Athletics but also will be available to students and the public for sports medicine related care in association with the UC Davis Health System. I would assume that it will provide opportunities for sports medicine related research at UCD also which would bring further recognition and prestige to the university as well. This is an exciting project.

I think the sports medicine is a huge part. I think they are installing a large indoor water training/rehab facility that’s accessible for all athletes. The scope is bigger, I suspect, than some of the other facilities listed.

You are correct it is hard to know what the scope at Bob Foster is from the brief description. Not sure what the Sac construction climate is; nationally labor is better but materials are scarcer than a year ago. AECOM as the general contractor seems like a reasonable choice, much more so than Brown was for the stadium. I think UC functions as their own building inspector, for better or worse. Some cost is self inflicted with the quest for LEED certifications, which are kind of a farce for optics. Based on the little I know, I still think the costs probably include some nice-to-haves, but I’m not upset by this since it is substantially funded by donors. Regardless, it was an impressive fundraising haul in a short period of time.

I can tell you from experience that campus tags on a huge tax, or whatever you want to call it, on building projects. Their certainly needs to be oversight, but when donors are evaluating costs, writing the check for overhead expenses is a tough sell. The same thing essentially happens with grant funds. The Chancellor takes a piece followed by the department. Those indirects never seem to trickle down.

I wonder who will be the new AD and if May will hit a home run with the selection...

I agree. Some of this is defensible, like the campus architect charging hours to the project to review plans. But the 6-10% that Mrak Hall skims off every donation and spends on who-knows-what is frustrating.

How about former associate AD Nona Richardson? She’s at Utah which has been pretty successful in the Pac12. I always liked her

If looking to the PAC 12 I would look to someone with similar characteristics as the successful outgoing Blue. Young, bright, vision, former student athlete

Unfortunately, she was involved with 2 problem incidents (scandals).

She bought some very expensive, unauthorized office furniture, when she was interim AD. $75,000?

A second situation. There were much higher than normal special admit by exception recruits, I think in men's basketball, that I think bypassed our normal procedures and academic requirements. She was interim AD when Warzecka (?) left, and Pam Gill had retired. I think there was an official report on the situation, but they didn't name her.

thanks. Doesn’t seem to have hampered her career trajectory. I believe Gross’ association with Syracuse bball scandal kept him from being a real candidate here in 2016, with Katehi dealing with her own problems at the time.

FWIW, the "Athletics Report" reviewed our 8 founding goals, and also dealt with how we lost our way.

This included "improprieties" with the ABE, which went from 2-3% of ICA admits (similiar to the general student body) to 5-6%. The study found the faculty athletic representative was cut out for over a year, a "deliberate omission". Three individuals usually shepard the process, but the FAR was out. The AD is another, is the HC the third representative?

Good news, we cleaned it up.

From what I’ve heard, the selection of the new AD will made by the end of the month. Goal is announcement by end of winter quarter. Much faster than the last time!

Is the current interim AD, Rocko DeLuca, in consideration?

I would assume so, but I don’t know any names

Since when did the AD search become so hush-hush?

Didn't previous searches include public Q&A?

I dont think so at this level at least. Reason is probably to protect the privacy of the unsuccessful candidates. Seems fair to me. Also, not likely that general public input would really add much to the process. In the UC systems high level hires are considered only under extremely private circumstances for just that reason.

I believe the search which ended up w Terry Tumey had public Q&A.

I think you are right. Look what that got us. . . .

If DeLuca was a contender, should we be happy or not? I don’t know anything about him.