Marquette athletic director Bill Scholl announces retirement plans

On Tuesday, Marquette University announced a notable change in its administration. University Vice President and Athletic Director Bill Scholl will retire. A national search for his replacement will begin immediately and Scholl will leave his position once his replacement is hired.

First, Scholl on his retirement:

“It has been an honor to work in such a special place, surrounded by remarkable people,” Scholl said. “I am very proud of our student-athletes, who have excelled not only in competition but also in the classroom and in the community as women and men for others. My family and I deeply appreciate the way this community has welcomed us from the beginning. Marquette will always have a special place in our hearts.

University President Dr. Michael Lovell on Scholl’s retirement:

“I have appreciated Bill’s leadership and wisdom over the past decade. He cares deeply about our student-athletes, their well-being and the people they become after they graduate from Marquette,” said President Michael R. Lovell. “Bill is unique in his commitment and success in integrating sports into the university. For the past 10 years, Bill has led with integrity and loyalty to Marquette and our students.

“Bill had two goals when he arrived at Marquette: to convey excellence and accountability within the athletic department, and to provide for, nurture and develop the student-athletes,” said President Lovell. “He achieved these goals and contributed to the legacy of our athletics program in countless ways that benefited our student-athletes, coaches and athletic staff, and for that, our Marquette community will always be grateful to him.” I appreciate everything he has done for our athletics program and for Marquette University. Amy and I will miss him and his wife Julie dearly.

You can go read Marquette’s press release for anything the university wants to highlight as the athletic department’s accomplishments under his leadership. All of this is important to note, but context is also important.

Scholl was hired in September 2014. This was about 10 months after Larry Williams left his position as athletic director, an act that itself followed the resignation of university President Scott Pilarz, S.J., in September 2013. This all happened after the 16th Big East team collapsed following various departures to other leagues and the Catholic 7s made the decision to restart the conference on their own in February 2013.

In short, for both internal and external reasons, Bill Scholl has embarked on a rather complicated profession. He took over the athletic directorship of a school where 1) the president of the university had been in office for less than six months, 2) the president of the university was the first non-Jesuit president in the history of the university, 3) the athletic conference had just taken over sports management. sprouted out of nowhere 18 months earlier and really wasn’t on stable ground, and 4) the athletic department’s flagship program, men’s basketball, had just hired a new coach six months ago and was about to have its first losing season since the turn of the century.

To say that Marquette Athletics has been remade in the image and likeness of Bill Scholl is probably an overstatement. But if you click on the press release and read the list of accomplishments over the past 10 school years – and that doesn’t include handling the COVID-19 pandemic – it’s very clear, given his point of initially, that Scholl has done a hell of a job governing this entire department.

Not everything was perfect. Just know that an active head coach search is underway at the moment for men’s lacrosse. This is the fifth head coaching search this school year alone, and only one was prompted by the departure of the coach in question for a new coaching position. In January 2023, Marquette and Scholl announced the end of scholarships for men’s and women’s tennis and men’s and women’s track and field. The issue of tennis scholarships may have been resolved last November, when the university received a $1 million commitment to establish an endowment for said scholarships, perhaps representing a net-zero position in the Scholl’s great book.

Yet with all that in mind, and perhaps because of some of this coaching search, Bill Scholl leaves Marquette athletics in better shape than he found it. You can’t ask for much more from a sports director. Now it’s time for someone new to take over and lead Marquette into the future. Personally, I am advocating for a new face, someone from outside the university and unconnected to the university. The world of college athletics is different in 2024 than it was in 2014, when Bill Scholl was hired, and I think Marquette in 2034 is better served by now hiring someone who has no desire to “well, that’s how we’ve always done it.” in Marquette.