Photo-Credit: Idaho State Journal
Logan Ramsey
Associate Editor
After a whirlwind of news surrounding the athletic program, ISU has officially announced that former athletic director Jeff Tingey will not be returning to the university after his paid leave ends.
Tingey will remain on paid administrative leave until June 2019 when his contract expires and will be replaced by a new athletic director.
Stuart Summers, an ISU spokesman, said that the university plans to conduct a national search for its new athletic director while Pauline Thiros fills in as interim athletic director.
“I am committed to setting the stage for a new athletic director,” Thiros said in the statement issued by the university. “In the coming months, it’s my goal to ready our student-athletes, staff, and coaches for success under a new athletic director’s leadership. Preparation is key, and we want to elevate our work and expectations. I believe our potential is great.”
Summers said that the interim athletic director wouldn’t be considered for the official position.
President Kevin Satterlee told the Idaho State Journal that the decision to remove Tingey from his post was because of the changing direction of the athletic department and not because of any rule violations.
The next Bengal Athletic Booster President, Jim Johnston, said that while he admired Tingey and what he was able to do for the athletic program, he supports Satterlee in his effort to better the university.
“I admire anyone who can accomplish as many things as Jeff did,” Johnston said. “I personally admired Jeff and thought that he worked hard to try and advance the athletic program for all sports at the university.”
The most impressive thing Johnston thought Tingey accomplished was taking the athletic department to a “positive position” in financial terms.
Photo-Credit: Idaho State Journal
But others weren’t as satisfied.
In a column submitted by the Football Alumni Team (F.A.T.) to the Idaho State Journal in August 2017, the team wrote that it was unhappy with how the budget was being dispersed under Tingey because revenue that was generated from playing top tier Division I football teams wasn’t given directly back to the football team.
Johnston thought that Tingey helped the program to be more fiscally responsible to the university.
“That helped support the entire athletic department,” he said.
Johnston also thought Tingey was good for the athletic department’s education standards.
“I loved Jeff’s team who could do outstanding things with academic excellence,” Johnston said. “I thought Jeff’s team did a good job in terms of improving the academic standing in all areas.”
Conversely, F.A.T. wrote in its August 2017 letter that it felt that the academic standards for student-athletes are too high, making the program uncompetitive with other teams.
Johnston said that he admired that the football team got high scores in the academic arena.
“That’s what school’s about, getting education for these student-athletes,” Johnston said. “I certainly would like to have seen a better win-loss record in some of the major sports, but it takes a lot of money and a lot of positive recruiting and a lot of cooperation from everyone to get there.”
Johnston said that he believes Tingey left a better athletic department than he came into.
“I’ve seen over the years a variety of different people as the athletic director and I think each one of them have made their contributions,” he said. “Let’s hope that the next go around is going to see even more positive things for Idaho State University athletics.”
