Missouri Tigers Hiring SDSU’s Jim Sterk as Athletic Director

There finally appears to be a sense of direction in regards to the future of the Mizzou athletic department.

After a summer of massive upheaval which saw the University of Missouri lose its athletic director, Mack Rhodes, to Baylor, then its interim athletic director, Wren Baker, who left for North Texas, it finally looks like the Tigers are heading towards some stability. San Diego State AD Jim Sterk has been hired to the same position at Missouri, taking his fourth career AD job and his first away from the West Coast.

The 60-year-old Sterk has been at San Diego State since 2010, and during that period the Aztecs have won 32 conference championships. Previously, he also worked as the athletic director at Portland State from 1995-2000, then at Washington State from 2000-10. Prior to becoming an athletic director, Sterk worked his way up the ranks at North Carolina, Maine, Seattle Pacific, and Tulane.

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Sterk will be the fourth individual to occupy Mizzou’s athletic director position in a very short period of time. After Rhodes left in early July, Baker was appointed as his temporary replacement, but he left just over two weeks later. Interim chancellor (that’s right, Mizzou doesn’t have a chancellor or president in place right now, either) Hank Foley temporarily took charge of the athletic department, and he later named longtime athletic department employee Sarah Reesman as the new interim AD. Via ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, Sterk will start as the Tigers’ athletic director on September 1.