Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour spoke to the media on Monday afternoon for the first time since her recent retirement announcement, ending an eight-year run at the helm of the athletic department.
“As we got clear of the fall, football season, the bowl game, and finished up our women’s volleyball search, our COVID numbers started to go down and we were all able to kind of take a little bit of a breath,” Barbour said.
“I really started reflecting and thinking about all of this, thinking about kind of where I was from health and well-being standpoint, and where my mind was. I didn’t get an opportunity to see my family over the holidays because of the bowl and the search. I went and spent some time with my family late January. That really started my mind thinking, and as I kind of assessed where I was and started thinking about it, in terms of the intersection with where Penn State was, and in particular our presidential transition.
“I really determined and decided that, not only was it the best decision for me at the right time for me, but that it was probably pretty good timing for Penn State. And so, that’s, that’s where my decision came from.”
Barbour’s decision to move on comes not long removed from Penn State’s hiring of Dr. Neeli Bendapudi to replace current president Eric Barron, who is retiring in May. Barbour gave Bendapudi high praise during her comments on Monday, the latter facing a challenging task of replacing Barbour who oversaw Penn State athletics for the better part of the past decade.
Who Bendapudi ends up hiring as Barbour’s successor remains to be seen, The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported that Northern Illinois’ athletic director Sean Frazier is a candidate for the job but no other names have been reported in the early stages of the search. Frazier has ties to the Big Ten with a previous stop at Wisconsin.
As for the immediate future Barbour will continue to work and operate as business as usual until a new athletic director is hired and properly transitioned into the role. In turn there is no set final day for Barbour at Penn State. Beyond that the Maryland native plans on spending at least another year in State College before ultimately moving the the western regions of the country where the majority of her family now resides.
Barbour noted that Penn State would be her last stop as an athletic director but that she hopes to continue to help students or perhaps take on some consulting roles as well. Whatever the case might be, Barbour is aiming for a far less strenuous workload.
“I definitely want to teach,” Barbour said. “I did a little bit of teaching along the way at some times and really enjoyed it. You all know how I feel about students and their opportunities, and I’d love to have the opportunity to get in the classroom. It’s kind of like being a coach again.”
Barbour’s successor will have plenty on his or her plate from the outset between ongoing campus renovations and the long slog of Beaver Stadium’s ever changing future. While many tangible tasks lay ahead, none might end up being as important as getting on the same page as head football coach James Franklin who has long harped on the need for the department to become increasingly flexible and open to the challenges of building a major college football program. The more Penn State’s new AD sees eye-to-eye with Franklin, the better – at least in the eyes of Franklin himself who operates now under a newly inked 10-year deal.
“You guys have heard me talk about alignment for a long time,” Franklin said earlier in the day. “I came in as the football coach with an interim president, interim ad and then was really fortunate because in a short period of time after that,President Barron and Sandy were hired and I thought we worked extremely, extremely well together. […] building those relationships is critical, as well as the chair of the [Board of Trustees] all those positions are really important.”
