Former Eastern Kentucky athletic director Mark Sandy will take over the same title at Ball State on Feb. 1, following a less than three month search with 60 candidates.
Sandy signed a four-year contract with Ball State, giving him a base salary of $245,000 per year. Sandy had been in that position at Eastern Kentucky since 2005 where his base salary was $165,273, said Melany Aldridge, an Eastern Kentucky paralegal.
“I relish the opportunity to lead Ball State’s athletics program,” Sandy said in a statement. “The Mid-American Conference in general and Ball State in particular represent my ideal of intercollegiate sports, demonstrating the balance of institutional mission and athletic excellence in its proper order. It’s my honor to be a part of that ideal.”
Sandy will replace Bill Scholl, who was hired at Marquette University in October after spending two and a half years as Ball State’s athletic director. Scholl’s salary was $246,750.
During that time he hired seven different head coaches. Of the seven coaches, nearly all have maintained previous success or raised the bar for their respective program, including multiple teams competing for postseason appearances.
Scholl also helped launch Cardinal Commitment in 2013, a $20 million fundraising project used to upgrade athletic facilities.
Sandy received some recognition during his term as well. Eastern Kentucky won the Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner's Cup for overall athletics excellence in conference-sponsored championships in two of Sandy's last three years as athletic director.
In his opening remarks, Sandy said Eastern Kentucky missed winning it for the third time by a point-and-a-half, due to a senior golfer making a mistake on a score card.
Sandy said his program has won the Commissioner’s Cup and the sportsmanship trophy multiple times, but never in the same year.
“Hard to win Commissioner’s Cup and sportsmanship trophy in same year,” Sandy said. “When you win, people don’t like you.”
Prior to his time at Eastern Kentucky, Sandy served as the associate athletic director and senior associate athletic director for five years. As the senior associate athletic director, he directed the $20 million Spider Athletic Initiative, a campaign focused on building an on-campus stadium for the university’s football, soccer, lacrosse and track teams.
“The interest in this position was wide, and the resulting talent pool of candidates for our new athletic director was deep,” Ball State president Paul Ferguson said in a statement. “I am confident that we have found the right person in Mark Sandy to keep our athletic program moving in its positive trajectory."
A 12-person search committee chose Sandy.
Ferguson gave a list of criteria to the search committee for qualities he wanted the new athletic director to have. The top criteria on the list was a record of running an ethical athletic department.
“We wanted to always run a clean program,” Ferguson said.
He also wanted somebody who would enhance the fan experience at Ball State.
Brian Hardin, who served as interim athletic director since October and was part of the committee, opened the press conference by mentioning the men’s and women’s basketball wins earlier in the week.
“2015 is off to a great start,” Hardin said. “I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but we deliver to you an undefeated athletic department.”
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