Big Sky Conference

Brennan backs out as Montana State athletic director

on

Eight days after being announced as the athletic director at Montana State University, Kyle Brennan has backed out of the position per a press release from the office of MSU President Waded Cruzado on Tuesday morning.

Brennan was offered the job last weekend and accepted the position on Monday, May 2. The University of Utah deputy athletic director emerged from a pool of 60 candidates and five finalists who made on campus visits. On Monday afternoon, Cruzado introduced him as MSU’s sixth AD in front of a sizable crowd of a few hundred.

A week later, Brennan sent Cruzado a text in the afternoon saying he needed to talk according to the press release. The release also stated that on Monday evening, Brennan told Cruzado he could not take the job.

According to the press release, Brennan said his family was concerned about affordable housing in the Gallatin Valley, moving his children into the Bozeman school system and also added that “it didn’t feel right,” Cruzado said in the press release.

“It would be an understatement to say I am disappointed,” Cruzado continued in the release. “We simply have been dealt an extraordinarily rare and unfortunate hand.

“We will consider our options this week and will keep all of you, as well as the MSU community, informed.”

Brennan has spent the last eight years as an associate athletic director at the University of Utah. Since 2014, he has served as the first deputy athletic director. Before that promotion, he spent three years as the special assistant to Utah athletic director Chris Hill, a veteran AD who has spent the last 30 years in Salt Lake City.

Brennan earned $197,794 in salary during his last fiscal year at Utah. Montana State spokesman Tracy Ellig said Brennan would have earned a base salary of $185,000 at Montana State his first year. Former athletic director Peter Fields made $135,000 annually until last year, when he netted $150,000 in base salary. Montana State also paid the Parker Executive Search firm $60,000 to assist in the search.

“Soon after accepting the position as athletics director at Montana State, I realized I did not want to leave the University of Utah,” Brennan said in a statement released by Utah. “I am grateful to the administration at Montana State for offering me the job and I regret putting them in a bad situation, but I realized this is the best place for my family. In no way is this a reflection on Montana State, but rather a reflection on my position here at Utah.”

Brennan’s wife, Beth, also will return to her old job as the Utah football program’s academic coordinator according to the Utah release.

“I did not make this decision lightly, but when I considered all of the factors, it became clear to me that staying here was in my family’s best interest,” Brennan said in the press release. “Among those factors were finances, my wife Beth’s job with the football team — which she very much enjoys — and the top-flight medical care available to our son Mac (who has leukemia and has been treated at the cancer center at the Huntsman Hospital in Salt Lake City).

“The bottom line is we love University of Utah athletics and Salt Lake City and realized that this is where we want to be.”

Just a week ago, Brennan seemed enthused about the potential of Montana State athletics and the prospects of being its leader.

“Montana State athletics is on the cusp of something really special,” Brennan said as he addressed a group of 10 reporters following his introduction to the public. “We have to get people motivated and excited but it’s a great opportunity to take it to the next level.”

Wyoming deputy athletic director Matt Whisenant, Eastern Michigan deputy AD Christian Spears, Arizona State executive associate athletic director for the Sun Devil Club Cooper Jones and South Dakota State deputy AD Leon Costello were the other four finalists.

Two sources confirmed to Skyline Sports that Costello was the second choice for the MSU AD opening before Brennan accepted the position.

A Montana State spokesman confirmed the school can draw from the pool of finalist for up to six months from the conclusion of the search, meaning MSU could offer the job to any of Whisenant, Spears, Jones or Costello without having to go through the full search process again.

Fields’ contract expires on July 1 of 2016.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

Recommended for you