There is a major shakeup coming to Syracuse Athletics, as Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack is retiring at the end of June. He will stay on until July 1.

This is a decision that will have far-reaching implications for SU Athletics in a multitude of different ways.

The following comes from an SU press release:

"It has been the greatest honor of my career to lead Syracuse Athletics," says Wildhack. "Syracuse University shaped the trajectory of my life, and to spend nearly a decade serving my alma mater has been an extraordinary privilege. I'm proud of what we've accomplished: championship-caliber facilities, record academic achievement and student-athletes excelling on and off the field. I came here with a tremendous sense of responsibility and leave with profound gratitude for the opportunity to give back to the place that gave me so much."

Named the athletic director in July of 2016, Wildhack previously worked at ESPN, and while he worked around college athletics, he was not in athletic administration previously. He is a Syracuse graduate.

Per his SU bio:

During his distinguished career at ESPN, which spanned more than 30 years, Wildhack held a number of leadership roles and was responsible for several firsts at the network. Those firsts included producing ESPN’s first live regular-season college football game in September 1984 and its first live NFL game in August 1987.Before joining the Orange, Wildhack most recently served as the network’s executive vice president for programming and production. He was responsible for oversight of all ESPN and ABC game, event and studio production work for domestic and international television and radio, as well as programming acquisitions, rights-holder relationship management and scheduling. He managed all league and conference relationships, negotiated all live sports television rights and was responsible for 50,000 hours of on-air content annually.  

The Syracuse men's basketball program is currently 13-11 overall and 4-7 inside Atlantic Coast Conference play. The program is on the verge of missing the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season.

Couple that program regression with a football program that just went 3-9, and the criticism for Wildhack has been loud.

In fairness, it should be noted that other programs have had success under his watch. Men's lacrosse is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation and got to the Final Four in 2025. Men's soccer won its first-ever national title in 2022 and the women's lacrosse program is one of the strongest and most well-respected in the country. The women's basketball team is off to a 19-5 start and sits at 9-4 inside the league. Football won 10 games and the Holiday Bowl in 2024.

There were also improvements made to on-campus athletic facilities.

We will have much more on this subsequently, but here are three things to think about immediately:

1) What does this mean for men's basketball coach Adrian Autry? His job security has already been the subject of much discussion, so how do things look when the guy who hired him is no longer going to be in power?

2) How does SU handle things in the NIL department now? Is this new AD able to fundraise more effectively? Do they have more corporate influence? More ability to get alumni to donate? 

3) Syracuse is also slated for a new chancellor. How do these new hires work together?

The Syracuse men are home on Wednesday night against Cal (7 p.m. ET). Our own Tom Goslowski will be live at the JMA Wireless Dome with reaction.

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