Shane Lyons, the deputy athletics director at Alabama and a former associate commissioner of the ACC, has agreed to return to his alma mater as West Virginia’s AD.
While deep ties to WVU make Lyons appealing, a university source told MetroNews on Sunday that his 26-year résumé in college sports administration—including 17 years within the power conferences—compensates for the fact he has never been an athletics director.
Two sources said Lyons, after meeting with WVU president Gordon Gee and other university officials this weekend, emerged as the choice for the position. A third source confirms that Lyons has accepted the position and the announcement will be made today.
Since Dec. 17, when Oliver Luck announced his departure to become the NCAA’s executive vice president of regulatory affairs, Gee has been publicly searching for a replacement. In actuality, Gee began compiling candidates in early November, when Luck privately revealed his move to Indianapolis.
Lyons, a Parkersburg native, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sports management from WVU in 1987 and 1988. He spent one year as assistant commissioner with the Big South Conference before serving nine years within the NCAA’s membership office.
Since 1998, Lyons has worked within three of the Power 5 conferences recently granted NCAA autonomy. He worked as associate athletics director for compliance at Texas Tech for three years before becoming the ACC’s No. 2 executive under John Swofford in 2001. During his decade at the ACC, the league expanded three times—luring Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse and Pitt from the Big East—while declining West Virginia on at least a couple occasions.
Lyons moved to Alabama in 2011, handling day-to-day operations under then-AD Mal Moore. When Moore retired for health reasons in March 2013, Lyons was passed over for the job—not surprisingly, because Moore endorsed 71-year-old Bill Battle, a former Crimson Tide player who at one point served as Bear Bryant’s agent. (Since 1923, only one of the school’s 11 athletics directors had not played or coached at Alabama.)
At West Virginia, it’s Lyons who’s the home-grown candidate.
“You’re not going out and hiring a cheerleader,” Gee said last month. “You’re hiring someone who really does have the substance to understand the values and issues that are important to the people of this state.”
Alabama’s athletic revenue topped $143.7 million last year, third-highest in the nation, while West Virginia ranked 33rd at $77.7 million. Both states offer huge support for their flagship programs without an excess of corporate dollars. West Virginia contains zero Forturne 1000 companies while Alabama has only five.
“There’s a lot of similarities between West Virginia and Alabama. Great, hard-working people in the state,” Lyons told AL.com in a 2012 interview. “Without the professional sports team, there’s just a passion around the state about the college athletics programs. That’s something very special that you can’t take away from the people.”
Luck drew a base salary of $550,000 at West Virginia, which escalated to $625,000 with bonuses in 2013.