Ex-BU athletic director lands new job

Former Baylor University Athletic Director Ian McCaw, who resigned after he was suspended following a scathing report about the sexual assault scandal that engulfed the school’s football program has landed a new job as athletic director at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

“I‘ve worked with Grant Teaff, who is former head coach at Baylor, I spoke with regents at Baylor, that’s what they call their trustees, who could not say enough good things about this man’s character and integrity," Liberty President Jerry Falwell, Jr., said during a news conference Monday.

The university announced Monday that it has hired McCaw to succeed Jeff Barber, who announced on Nov. 17 that he was resigning effective immediately.

“My vision for Liberty is to position it as a pre-eminent Christian athletic program in America and garner the same type of appeal among the Christian community as Notre Dame achieves among the Catholic community and BYU garners from the Mormons,” McCaw said.

“Liberty to me represents a pinnacle of professional and personal opportunity where we’re going to be able to develop champions for Christ, develop a world-class student athlete experience, and achieve victory with integrity. We certainly want Christian student athletes to grow up dreaming of competing for Liberty University.”

McCaw spent 13 years at athletic director at Baylor and during his tenure the school chalked up five national team championships and 58 conference titles.

He was suspended on May 26 after Baylor regents heard the scathing Pepper Hamilton law firm’s report of its review of the sexual assault scandal, and then resigned on May 30.

He remained on the Baylor payroll, although he was no longer working.

Despite the board's action in May, one current regent praised McCaw Monday.

“Ian McCaw is a fine man with a record of success during his time here at Baylor. I am confident he will prove to be an outstanding athletic director for Liberty," Baylor Regent Jay Allison said.

Falwell says McCaw was the ideal candidate for the job.

“Ian’s success really speaks for itself,” Falwell said. “You look at what Baylor was able to do during his tenure, it fits perfectly with where we see our sports programs going. This is an exciting time for us.”

In a surprising coincidence, the Liberty Flames play their season football opener on Sept. 2, 2017 against Baylor at McLane Stadium in Waco.

Liberty describes itself as the nation’s fifth largest university and the world’s largest Christian university with more than 15,000 residential students and more than 94,000 online students.

The university has 16 colleges and schools including a law school, medical school and school of divinity.

The university is a little more than four decades old.

The school was founded after Pastor Jerry Falwell, Sr., challenged his congregation at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg to establish a Christian school to prepare students to “go out in all walks of life to impact this world for God.”

Monday’s announcement fell on the ninth anniversary of the introduction of Art Briles as Baylor’s 25th head football coach.

He was introduced on Nov. 28, 2007 during an evening news conference at Floyd Casey Stadium.

Regents announced on May 26 that they had suspended him with intent to terminate.

Briles and former Chancellor and President Ken Starr, whom regents reassigned, have both since reached settlements with the university.