New Pitt AD Barnes looks to align goals of athletics, university

Athletics is like the front porch.

The front porch isn't the most important room in the house, but it's certainly the most visible part of the house.

This is how new Pitt athletic director Scott Barnes, as well as Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, view athletics in the University of Pittsburgh. With the hire of Barnes as athletic director, the goal now is to get the porch to match the rest of the house.

Pitt introduced Barnes as the university's new athletic director in a press conference Friday afternoon in the first floor lounge of the William Pitt Union on Pitt's Oakland campus. The announcement culminates a four-month long search that began on Dec. 17 when Gallagher fired former athletic director Steve Pederson.

Barnes' focus in starting his role at Pitt is to align the goals of the athletic department with the goals of the entire university. Based on the opportunity at Pitt, he believes there is an ability to combine these visions to enhance Pitt's profile.

"Athletics truly is a front porch," he said. "As you think about Pitt athletics relates to the university, it's not the most important room in the house, but it is the most visible. With that comes both opportunity and responsibility.

"Opportunity to invite all sorts of constituents, fans, alumni, or re-invite them through the athletic door to different parts of the university and campus. Also comes with responsibility, and that is that we have to make sure people sitting and standing on the front porch are representing this great university in a way that we want. That includes our student-athletes, coaches and others affiliated with the university.

"We promise to make sure that is a focal point in our alignment. Without alignment, in short, athletics cannot reach its goals. We must be aligned and partners with the greater university, and we'll look forward to doing that from day one."

Pittsburgh provides that opportunity with the shared vision of the athletic department and the university as a whole under Gallagher.

"When you think about what's important for an athletic department and what's important for an athletic department, it starts with the Chancellor," Barnes said. "Chancellor Gallagher's vision for excellence whether it's football or physics is critical to the success of an athletic program. It's also important there's a trust and an alignment there. We felt that the minute we met Chancellor Gallagher, and [Barnes' wife] Jody felt the same way.

"The opportunities at Pitt, the upside, the tradition and history, incredible history to build on and tradition. I love the fact that we have new energy in our football coach, Coach Narduzzi. Just having a little bit of time with him, understanding his energy, his vision, and just being excited to help support that vision Coach Narduzzi has.

"Overall, you think about the quality of this university. It's one of the best research institutions in the country, and the city that Pittsburgh is wraps it up into a really nice bow for us."

Gallagher iterated at Friday's session that he wants Pitt to be excellent in "football and physics." Using athletics as a vehicle, both see the department as a way to represent the University of Pittsburgh.

"I wanted our athletics to represent this university," Gallagher said. "Specifically, I was looking for a shared vision of excellence."

Gallagher said when searching for an athletic director he was looking for four qualities: leadership, execution, teamwork, and someone that is ready today. He understands how important athletics is to Pitt and wants to seize the opportunity athletics has to represent the entire university.

"We have the student-athletes here now," Gallagher said. "We have the coaches here now. We have great facilities like the Petersen Events Center and our partnership with the Steelers. We have the fan base, the passion and energy, and it wasn't fair to that group that we were waiting several years to develop. So we wanted an athletic director that was ready today."

Barnes also has a focus on the student-athlete. He and his wife are former student-athletes, and his children are student-athletes. Beyond the elevating the success of Pitt athletics, he wants to focus on the student-athletes themselves.

"When you think about what's happening today, the focus is, rightfully so, on student-athletes," he said. "We'll take great measure to make sure that excellence happens in the classroom and on the field of play in preparing our student-athletes for life. There's a number of things that we'll do to continue to bring that focus."

It's not just work within the department that was appealing about Barnes, but his work with external parties. Barnes is regarded as a skilled fundraiser, able to secure five donations of over $1 million while at Utah State, including the two largest donation gifts in school history.

He plans to bring that mentality to Pitt. In fact, Barnes said he was going over some fundraising ideas with his wife on the plane ride to Pittsburgh.

"I think first of all it's about relationships," Barnes said. "It's about listening. It's about matching interest and ability to give to important projects, setting a vision that people can get excited about. When you have that vision that you put together, and not by yourself because you have your coaches, Chancellor and others, but you put together your common vision that people can buy in to. Then you talk to people that have a heart for Pitt and what you're doing and the interest and ability, it tends to come together.

"Certainly, we need to make sure we're out there and casting a wide net. We're asking new people to join. We're re-upping the folks that have been so loyal to us. Purposeful activity in that process, and new ways to ask and excite people along the way."

Gallagher added the key in Barnes fundraising skills is his ability to follow through and get the job done.

"If you're a donor and you want to make a difference, the vision is great," Gallagher said, "but you want to also have the confidence that if you make a gift, it's going to happen, and it's going to be transformative. I think that's been part of Scott's magic sauce. His track record is something people will have confidence in trusting."

Barnes has been the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Utah State since April 2008; in the first six years of that tenure, the Aggies won 20 conference championships. The Utah State football team also won the 2013 Mountain Division of the Mountain West Conference and played in the inaugural MWC championship game.

In 2009, Utah State was recognized as having the most economically efficient athletic department in the nation and ranked among the top six in that category over the next three years.

Last year, Barnes was named the 2013-14 Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year, and he focused extensively on connecting with alumni in donors during his time at Utah State. Now, he hopes to bring that success to Pittsburgh.

"It's a great day to be a Panther," he said. "Hail to Pitt."

Click Here to view this Link.