It’s Official: Pat Kraft is Leaving Boston College to Become Penn State Athletic Director

As expected, Brett McMurphy is reporting that Patrick Kraft is officially leaving Boston College to take over the Athletic Director job at Penn State. Kraft was at Boston College for just under 2 years, taking the job in summer of 2020 and leaving in spring of 2022.

Prior to Boston College, Kraft was the Athletic Director at Temple from 2013-2020, the Associate Athletic Director at Loyola from 2011-2013, and the Assistant Athletic Director at his alma mater Indiana from 2009-2011.

While at Boston College, Kraft oversaw a few major changes, including hiring Earl Grant to take over the men’s basketball program and signing a deal with New Balance that includes not only team uniforms, but student athlete access to New Balance facilities, internships, and more.

Kraft was also at Boston College for the Eagles’ first lacrosse National Championship, as well as for the beginning of construction on BC’s new basketball facilities. The credit for the lacrosse victory goes to Acacia Walker and her team and staff, and the basketball facility has been in the works for years, but these still paint the Kraft years as a success.

The most disappointing thing about Kraft leaving BC so quickly is the precedent it continues to set that the BC job is not desirable. Brad Bates stayed at BC for 5 years, during which fans expressed near constant frustration with the direction (or lack their of) of revenue programs, Martin Jarmond left the Heights for UCLA after just 3 years, and now Kraft is departing even faster.

Boston College has yet to announce how the search for the next Athletic Director will be formatted, but plenty of names are already being thrown around, such as UMass’s Ryan Bamford, BC alum Chris Iacoi who works with Jarmond as Associate AD/CFO at UCLA, and VCU’s Ed McLaughlin, another BC alum.