Two obvious potential candidates for Boston College athletic director

With today’s news that Pat Kraft will reportedly be heading to Penn State to be their next athletic director, speculation is sure to begin in earnest about who will replace him — and, more importantly, what qualities BC will look for in a replacement.

With high turnover now - Jarmond and Kraft both apparently departing within three years - there may be more of an emphasis on stability, rather than on an ‘upwardly mobile’ candidate who’s a likely quick flight risk if they find success.

This is a bit of a turnaround from other recent BC hires, where the emphasis was moreso on finding coaches or administrators early in their career with rising profiles — think Hafley, Jarmond, etc.

If you’re looking for a combination of the two - people who are still relatively young in high-level administrator terms, but also have enough local connections that they could be good long-term prospects to stay at BC - there are two successful administrators who should immediately be on BC’s shortlist.

One is Chris Iacoi, a 2001 alum of Boston College and current Senior Associate AD/CFO at UCLA, where, oddly enough, he now works under Martin Jarmond. Iacoi worked at BC until 2014, working his way up from an entry-level position to financial management.

Iacoi’s financial management, experience at the top level of college athletics, and deep roots at and understanding of Boston College’s culture make him a name to keep an eye on. His name came up during speculation around previous AD searches but it was probably a little early for him - but perhaps no longer.

If you’re looking for someone with experience as the AD at the D1 level, Ryan Bamford of UMass-Amherst should be a pretty obvious person to call. Bamford hired Greg Carvel to coach UMass’s hockey team and led that program to a turnaround, has been a prolific fundraiser, and also seems to have made a solid basketball hire in Frank Martin. UMass football is still a basketcase, but it’s hard to pin that on Bamford, who inherited that situation.

Bamford has deep local roots - a New Hampshire native who worked at Plymouth State, Springfield College, and the University of New Hampshire. He also has ACC ties having spent two years as senior associate AD at Georgia Tech.

I’m sure there are many names that will come up in the coming weeks as BC starts yet another AD search, but these are two names worth considering.

EDIT (9:48 AM): Not sure how we forgot to mention him on the initial ‘obvious candidates list,’ but Ed McLaughlin is also a BC alum with some extensive experience whose name will surely be floated. McLaughlin, BC ‘95, is Athletic Director at Virginia Commonwealth University. He previously was AD at Niagara, and spent time as assistant AD at Merrimack.