On Thursday morning, Syracuse University formally introduced Bryan Blair as the school's newest athletic director. Blair is taking over for John Wildhack, who announced that he's retiring at the end of June. Though Wildhack is on staff until then, he will work with Blair on the transition.

As a reminder, Blair comes to Syracuse by way of Toledo, where he held this same position for four years.

The following comes from a portion of his Syracuse bio:

In his time at Toledo, he led a bold and comprehensive modernization of Rocket Athletics, marked by record-breaking revenue generation, championship success, strategic brand elevation, and a deep commitment to student-athlete outcomes. In 2024, he was named to the prestigious Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 list, affirming his standing as one of the most influential and future-ready leaders in sports and entertainment.

The youngest FBS athletic director in the nation at the time of his hire, Blair’s tenure at Toledo coincided with one of the nation’s most dominant competitive runs. The Rockets won 16 Mid-American Conference championships – more than the previous decade combined – since his arrival, and captured the MAC Cartwright Award, based on the criteria of excellence in athletics, academics and citizenship, three consecutive times, and sweeping both the Reese (men’s) and Jacoby (women’s) trophies for the first time in school history in 2023-24.

Here are the five biggest things we learned from Thursday's press conference.

Blair said this in regard to the latest on finding a new head coach to lead the Orange's men's basketball program

"I know the elephant in the room is the basketball search right? I understand we have a lot of questions about that. The reality is that process is well under way. We got a great pool of candidates we are excited about our progress and I think we will have something to share here soon, relatively soon. Don't want to give a timeline, don't want to get in depth on that piece of it. I respect many of the coaches that are still playing in the tournament but hopefully will able to share that with you shorty. "

Since the start of the month, Syracuse has hired a new chancellor and the new athletic director. Mike Haynie's appearance was his first public display and his first opportunity to address athletics publicly. He didn't say much, but it's good for fans to put a face to a name. He has vowed to make Syracuse a top-tier athletic program.

Blair addressed the importance of what the evolving college athletics looks like.

"We've gotta modernize our enterprise ... we're going to attack revenue generation and we're going to attack NIL. NIL is one of the most, if not the most important, aspects of what we do."

Blair addressed the passion of Syracuse fans in all forms of athletics.

"That passion, that energy, that conviction... we need to channel it in the right way." 

On what Syracuse's home arena (JMA Wireless Dome) can be for a home court/field advantage.

"There's not many places that can host 30,000 for a basketball game" 

We often hear the term "win the press conference" used when a new head coach, athletic director, president or general manager is introduced in sports. It’s always tough to understand who actually the "win the press conference" is for. Is the win for alumni wanting tickets to games? Is the win for the fans? Is a great introductory most beneficial for donors? Is it for media members?

Overall, Blair didn’t do say anything in this press conference that should discourage Syracuse fans going forward. These introductory press conference almost feel like a pep rally. Buy your tickets now, buy your jersey, and support. Blair's introduction was not necessarily unique but it was still an encouraging afternoon for Orange fans.

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