Brad Bates Announced As Boston College Athletic Director

Brad Bates will be the new Boston College Athletic Director. Just over a week after Gene DeFilippo's resignation officially went into effect, BC announced that the former AD at Miami University in Ohio will take over the position in Chestnut Hill. Bates has been at Miami University since 2002 and spent 17 years at Vanderbilt before that.

A number of potential names were swirling around before the school made the hiring official. Just a couple of days ago, it seemed as though Army AD Boo Corrigan would be the guy. In the end, the hiring of Bates to takeover the job is somewhat of a surprise. Obviously, only time will tell if BC made a good decision.

One of the more interesting aspects of this hiring is that Bates come from a school with a strong hockey program. Hopefully he recognizes the fact that Jerry York is not to be messed with and will simply do whatever he can to provide the hockey program with the necessary resources. The focus, of course, is on the football program and how Bates will deal with the inevitable (right...??) firing of Coach Spaziani. Snagging the right replacement as head coach of the football team will go a long way towards establishing Bates' legacy at Boston College.

The hiring was first reported by The Heights and was formally announced at the school's press conference on Tuesday afternoon. You'll get much more reaction to the hiring and how it impacts each program from all of us at BCI in the next couple of days.