CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland State will announce later today that Mike Thomas has been hired as the school’s new director of athletics, following official approval by the board of trustees, according to multiple sources and reports.
Thomas would replace John Parry, who retired last month.
It’s expected CSU will introduce Thomas at a news conference, possibly as early as today.
Thomas is the former athletic director at Akron, who moved on to Cincinnati, then Illinois. He was replaced at Illinois in 2015 amid scandals surrounding the football program and former coach Tim Beckman. An investigation found extensive mistreatment of players by Beckman. The school’s report showed no misconduct by Thomas.
Athletic directors are generally recognized by their coaching hires. Thomas has hired several high profile coaches, beginning with Keith Dambrot (basketball) and JD Brookhart (football) at Akron, Brian Kelly (football) and Mick Cronin (basketball) at Cincinnati, then Beckman (football) and John Groce (basketball) at Illinois.
The most successful of those have been Dambrot and Cronin, who remain successful and winning head coaches at their posts today.
The most troubled were Brookhart and Beckman, who were aligned with off-the-field issues by numerous players in their programs and were fired. Kelly has moved on to Notre Dame, and Groce is currently under fire at Illinois for poor results.
Thomas did have many administrative successes. He was Illinois’ AD from 2011 to 2015, where he oversaw teams that won a national championship, claimed four Big Ten titles in one year, earned numerous top 10 rankings, and made multiple bowl and NCAA tournament appearances.
He also raised $165 million in donations over four years, doubling the previous five-year average and achieving the highest annual total in school history. While at Illinois the overall student athlete GPA rose from 3.05 to 3.25.
In addition, Thomas launched and completed a $170 million arena renovation of the State Farm Center and negotiated multi-year rights deals with Nike and Learfield Sports.
Prior to Illinois, Thomas was AD at Cincinnati, 2005-2011, where he transitioned the program into the Big East Conference and Bowl Championship Series competition.
Thomas was AD at Akron from 2000 to 2005. While there, the Zips won their first MAC Championship in football and rose to second place in academic and athletic performance in the annual MAC standings for the Director’s Cup.
Over his career, Thomas has also served as a member of the Big Ten Legislative Review Committee, the United States Tennis Association Athletic Director Advisory Committee and the NCAA Division I Championship/Sports Management Cabinet.
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