Report: Baylor finalizing hire of Field and Stream president Doug McNamee as next athletic director

Baylor has found its new athletic director. According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, the Bears are finalizing a deal to hire Doug McNamee for the role.

McNamee will take over as AD after serving at the President of Field and Stream, an outdoor lifestyle brand. He also graudated from Baylor in 2003, where he was a manager for the basketball team. He previously worked for the university from 2012-18 in various roles.

Doug McNamee began his administrative career with Baylor as an assistant AD for premium tickets through the Bear Foundation in 2012. He was later promoted to senior associate AD before eventually taking over leadership of the Bear Foundation.

In 2017, McNamee was promoted to Senior Associate AD for External Relations. He served on the search committee that helped hire football coach Matt Rhule that same year.

Doug McNamee will take over for Mack Rhoades, who took a leave of absence last month for “personal reasons” before the school opened up an investigation against him. Rhoades later resigned from his position just eight days later.

It’s still unclear exactly what led to Rhoades’ suddent resignation. Baylor only confirmed that they “do not involve Title IX or any direct interaction with a Baylor athlete,” according to Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger.

Regardless, the Bears are ready to move on to the next era at athletic director and got one of their own to do so. We’ll see whether he can step in and keep things moving during a somewhat shaky time for the athletic department.

Baylor president evaluates athletics department’s strategy in NIL, rev-share era after Mack Rhoades resignation

Rhoades’ departure comes roughly less than six months after the House settlement ushered in the rev-share era in college athletics. But in addition to the $20.5 million cap in place under the agreement this year, Livingstone pointed out the need to ensure third-party NIL opportunities for Baylor athletes.

It’s all part of her assessment of the financial model in college athletics, though she acknowledged Rhoades’ achievements in Waco. That means making sure donor support is in place, as well as making sure there’s stability from a financial standpoint.

“I think what I would say, in terms of going forward – and this is not a reflection on Mack. It’s a reflection on the changing nature of college athletics,” Livingstone said during an interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald. “I think we’ve got to really think about kind of our financial model in college athletics. Everybody’s doing this. And how do we financially support athletics at the level we have to, to be competitive on a national scale – both in the conference and nationally – from a financial perspective that doesn’t burn the institution in a way that’s harmful to other aspects of what we’re doing? And frankly, at the end of the day, we’re an academic institution. We’ve got to make sure we continue to support that.

“So how do we work with our donors and ways to support what we’re doing? How do we grow a broader sponsorship base? How do we think about outside NIL? Doing it in a legitimate way, for legitimate NIL at fair market value that’s external to the $20.5 million or so that we can spend internally. We’ve got to do all of those things better to have the financial base and athletics, both from an operating budget perspective, but also from an NIL perspective.”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.