Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne is expected to be named athletic director at Alabama, possibly as soon as Monday.
Jeff Stevens, a UA booster and co-namesake of the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, confirmed Byrne's departure to the Star Sunday night.
Alabama's current athletic director, Bill Battle, has been at the school for four years. He is expected to retire for health reasons. Battle took a leave of absence last summer as he battled multiple myeloma.
Byrne, 45, joined the UA in 2010 after serving as athletic director at Mississippi State and associate athletic director at both Oregon State and Kentucky. Under Byrne, the Arizona athletic department budget has grown from $45 million to $80 million. Byrne hired football coach Rich Rodriguez and baseball coach Jay Johnson, moved Wildcats' baseball program off-campus to Hi Corbett Field and oversaw renovations to Arizona Stadium and McKale Center. Byrne's next fundraising project was supposed to be a modernization of Arizona Stadium, replacing the old facility's metal bleachers with chairbacks.
Byrne's biggest accomplishment may have been the hire he didn't have to make. The AD successfully negotiated an extension with basketball coach Sean Miller after he interviewed at Maryland in 2011. The commitment, which included a commitment to better facilities and charter flights for his team, cemented a bond between the two men and their families.
Byrne's use of social media and email — his "Wildcat Wednesdays" dispatches are sent to UA fans weekly — made him ahead of the times in the older, often-stodgy world of athletic directors. Byrne was linked to openings at the Michigan, Texas and USC during his time at the UA, but rebuffed the schools' interests. If Byrne was planning to bolt, it wasn't apparent: Byrne is building a new home in Tucson; his two sons are enrolled as UA students.
Byrne will almost certainly receive a sizable raise to run the Crimson Tide's athletic department. He made a base of $600,000 per year at Arizona; Battle's four-year deal, signed in 2013, called for a base salary of $620,000.
By leaving voluntarily, Byrne will forego a more than $2 million stock retention bonus. Byrne would've had to stay at the UA until 2020 to collect the sum; Miller and Rodriguez have similar retention bonuses, gifts from an unnamed UA donor.
Alabama should have no problem matching — or greatly exceeding — that figure. The Crimson Tide's football program brought in more than $100 million last year. Byrne visited Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Saturday, according to a report posted later Sunday by Sports Business Journal. Tide football coach Nick Saban "gave a thumbs up on the new AD," reporter Michael Smith tweeted.
The UA could turn to a handful of sitting athletic directors to replace Byrne. TCU's Chris Del Conte is a former UA associate athletic director who has overseen construction of both a new basketball arena and football plant. South Florida's Mark Harlan holds two degrees from Arizona and has connections to former Wildcats football coach Dick Tomey. Tomey worked under Harlan two years ago as a mentor to football coach Willie Taggart. Taggart was recently named head coach at Oregon.
It's unclear who will hire Arizona's next athletic director. University president Ann Weaver Hart is transitioning to a professor's role. Byrne was a member of the board tabbed to replace her.
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