McNeely leaving

Michael McNeely, the man who orchestrated the complete overhaul of the IU sports brand, is leaving IU after just 16 months on the job, sources in the athletic department said Thursday evening.\nIU Spokesman Bill Stephan told the IDS late Thursday that the University has taken no action with McNeely.\n"If the question is 'Has he been fired," the answer is 'no,'" Stephan said. "If you have coaches saying that, it's incorrect."\nSources said McNeely was not at the office Thursday.\nMcNeely told the board of trustees in September that his department is facing a deficit of about $1 million, citing greater student-athlete scholarship costs, post-season competition costs and rising sports program costs. It's the department's first ever deficit.\nBut an Indianapolis Star article last week documented serious internal athletic problems. The Star article said the department was $3 million in debt over the same period.\nMcNeely said the numbers are the same, simply interepted in a different way.\n"We have a current negative fund balance in parts of the main office," McNeely said. "We have a trend of declining ticket sales in football, which is one of our largest sources of support, the cost of athletic programs is going up and scholarships have also gone up."\nMcNeely proposed at that meeting an operating plan that covers the implementation of a five-year operating budget plan, a five-year capital improvement budget plan and an intermediate term restoration plan. McNeely proposed a number of preliminary revenue sources that are already going into effect.\nAmong them, the department began an aggressive telemarketing plan to sell football tickets, signed a team apparel contract that will raise approximately $300,000 to $400,000, and initiated a new catering and concessions program that will raise approximately $500,000 to $600,000.\nMcNeely said in a summary of his plans the new revenue initiatives are "to enhance revenue support, to streamline costs of operations and to ensure our goals of national competitiveness of our sports programs."\nMcNeely, who replaced Clarence Doninger July 1, 2002 and was scheduled to make $256,250 this academic year. \nMcNeely's departure leaves the University searching for a full-time University president, athletics director and an IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis chancellor. The University has already postponed the search for a Bloomington provost.\nIn his brief stint at IU, McNeely transformed the way the department works, creating a universal logo and a athletics-wide apparell contract with Nike. \nMcNeely told the IDS the changes were an effort to define IU spirit and unify the University and the athletics teams.\n"We have consistency in the way that we represent ourselves. It doesn't mean that there is radical change. In fact, the reality is that some changes will be ever-so-subtle people wouldn't even notice a difference," McNeely said. "What we are talking about here -- and the big picture -- is Indiana representing themselves consistently. The way we look in terms of our colors and the logo that we use, that's really what the question is.\n"It's not about a radical change at all."\nMcNeely also took the interim label of men's basketball coach Mike Davis, signing him to a lucrative long term deal.\nIn his tenure, he also dismissed three coaches, signaling a committment to winning.\n"There are not sufficient factors to indicate that the current direction of these programs will yield higher levels of competitive success," said McNeely in firing the softball, women's soccer and men's swimming coaches in May.\nWhen IU selected Michael McNeely as its new athletics director, it got what a University vice president described as a "football guy."\nMcNeely has spent the last two years as the vice president and chief operating officer for the NFL's San Diego Chargers. He's also had stints with two college athletic departments and was director of operations for the NCAA.\nMcNeely spent five years coaching at the University of Colorado, helping build a football tradition. And the 47 year old said he spent his childhood in Kansas building football and baseball fields. \nAfter being named IU's new athletics director July 1, 2001, McNeely got the opportunity to help boost IU's struggling football program and 23 other sports on the Bloomington campus. \n"Frankly, we liked the idea that he had a strong background in football," Terry Clapacs, vice president for administration, told the IDS for a story published last March.\nCheck www.idsnews.com for updates and Friday's Indiana Daily Student for complete coverage.