Reports: Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades to succeed Mike Alden at Missouri

Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades will be named Mike Alden’s successor at Missouri on Monday, according to multiple reports.

CBS Sports was the first to report the news.

Alden, who has served as the Tigers’ athletic director since 1998, announced in late January that he would be stepping down effective Aug. 31.

Missouri chancellor R. Bowen Loftin led the nationwide search and settled on a candidate with whom he had some familiarity.

Rhoades, 49, was a candidate for Texas A&M’s athletic director opening in 2012 when Loftin was still the Aggies’ president.

Ultimately, that job went Eric Hyman, who Loftin lured away from South Carolina.

According to multiple reports, Loftin initially targeted Mississippi athletic director Ross Bjork, who was Missouri’s athletic development officer from 1997-2001 before he was promoted to assistant athletic director for development from 2001-03.

Bjork rebuffed the opportunity to return to Columbia, so Rhoades will take the reins instead.

Rhoades has served as Houston’s athletic director since June 2009 when he was hired from Akron and brings a track record of facilities development and fund-raising success to Missouri.

He helped lead the Cougars’ transition into the American Athletic Conference and spearheaded the construction of a new $120-million football stadium, which opened last fall.

Rhoades, who earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education at Arizona and a master’s in sports management and marketing at Indiana, also led campaigns for a new $25 million basketball practice facility and improvements to Houston’s golf facilities as well as major renovations to the baseball and softball stadium.

Donations to Cougars’ athletics have grown each year of Rhoades’ tenure.

He recently hired Ohio State assistant coach Tom Herman to head up the Cougars’ football program.

Rhoades also hired former Oklahoma and Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson to lead the men’s basketball program and tapped Todd Whitting as baseball coach. He’s turned Houston into a national power, which is currently ranked No. 12 in the National College Baseball Writers Association poll.

Rhoades serves as chair of the American Athletic Conference’s Athletic Directors Committee.

Rhoades also oversaw construction of a new football stadium during his time at Akron, where he was hired in December 2005 and worked to make the Zips a self-funded athletic department.

Prior to that, Rhoades served as senior associate athletic director at UTEP (1998-2006) and athletics advancement at Marquette (1997-98).

Rhoades made $537,600 in 2013, according to the USA Today NCAA Athletic Director salary database. He had a maximum of $75,000 in available bonuses.

By comparison, Alden made $651,917 with available bonuses of $347, 915.

Rhoades and his wife, Amy, have three daughters — Nicolette, Natalie and Noelle.

Missouri paid Korn Ferry an initial retainer of $75,000 for assistance in its athletic director search, which took fewer than six weeks.

The MU Board of Curators has called a special meeting for 7:30 a.m. Monday morning, where it is expected that Rhoades’ hiring will receive final approval.

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 10:41 PM with the headline "Reports: Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades to succeed Mike Alden at Missouri."