EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Mark Jackson had never visited Northwestern. When he stepped foot on campus, he had already agreed to leave Villanova and take over as the school’s new athletic director.
“My wife said, ‘Aren’t you going to go see the campus?’” Jackson said Tuesday, less than a week after leaving Villanova to take the job sight unseen. “I told her I didn’t need to, that I’d talked to enough people who told me this place was just out of this world.”
Jackson, 51, had been athletic director at Villanova since 2015, overseeing a department that won 34 Big East championships in various sports and two NCAA tournament titles in men’s basketball.
A Boston-area native, he served as an administrator at Southern California during its football dominance under Pete Carroll and at Syracuse before taking over at Villanova. He also worked in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders and New England Patriotsand has worked alongside some of the most successful coaches, from Bill Belichick to Carroll to Jay Wright.
Jackson didn’t necessarily intend to leave Villanova. But Northwestern clearly has plenty of assets beyond its Big Ten membership and strong academic reputation.
The school just north of Chicago In recent years, the city has invested heavily in its sports facilities, building the stunning $270 million Walter Athletics Center and the Ryan Fieldhouse indoor training facility along Lake Michigan. The basketball arena has undergone a major renovation. The biggest project of all is underway right now, with the construction of a new Ryan Field on the site of the old one.
The football team will play most of its home games over the next two years at a temporary lakefront stadium that opened Saturday to rave reviews, with its views of the water and the Chicago skyline. collapsed in their temporary home beating Miami (Ohio) 13-6.
The men’s basketball team was one of the biggest surprises in the country last year, winning eight games and a bowl game in coach David Braun’s first season. The men’s basketball team made its second straight NCAA tournament appearance.
There are lingering scars, too. In addition to helping Northwestern navigate a new landscape that includes NIL collectives and the possibility that schools will be able to pay athletes directly While trying to regulate booster payments, Jackson may also have to help the school heal.
“As I told my team this morning, doing the right thing is not always easy, but it’s always right,” Jackson said. “We’re going to commit to it. Are we going to be perfect? Probably not. But we’re going to proactively educate students about the pitfalls that exist in everything from academic integrity to gambling to what consent means on a college campus.”
Jackson takes over after former athletic director Derrick Gragg was moved to an advisory role with the university following a hazing and abuse scandal that engulfed the department.
The university initially suspended longtime football coach Pat Fitzgerald after allegations of hazing and abuse within the team. An investigation by attorney Maggie Hickey of the law firm ArentFox Schiff found no “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff knew about the ongoing hazing, but concluded there was “a substantial possibility” that they did.
Under public pressure, school president Michael Schill fired Fitzgerald. Gragg was on vacation at the time of the controversy and never addressed the team in person. Fitzgerald is suing the school for wrongful termination.
Later, the Chicago Tribune reported that a Northwestern investigation had confirmed allegations of harassment by baseball coach Jim Foster, who was hired by Gragg. Foster was fired only after the investigation was made public.
A separate investigation by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recommended that Northwestern improve its hazing prevention training. The school has taken steps to help prevent hazing and report misconduct.
Jackson spoke of the “uncompromising philosophy” of “treating each other well” and pledged to review how Northwestern supervises each team.
“When you’re a head coach overseeing 110 football players versus a lacrosse team that might have 26 women, the challenges are different,” Jackson said. “Every program, I think, requires nuance. We want someone to be immersed in that program to work with the head coach. Whether it’s fundraising, compliance, ticketing, the academic side of things, I want our administrators to be aware and connected to each program.” ___
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