New director named for Baylor athletics
by Steve David The Dallas Morning News (KRT)

   WACO, Texas-If Baylor's athletic department can rally past its summer of substantial discontent and its recent anchor status in the money sports, a previously anonymous, boyish figure with northern roots will have a lot to do with it.
   Baylor introduced Ian McCaw on Monday from the University of Massachusetts. McCaw inherits the Waco school's athletic director's seat-and the ample challenges tied to it.
   McCaw, 40, leaves his post as athletic director at UMass after just 14 months.
   A five-year stay at Northeastern University, where he helped reshape athletics at the small Boston school, and stops at Tulane and Maine also line his resume.
   McCaw's arrival completes the important work of a school search committee that hastily located leaders for Baylor's basketball program and athletic department.
   McCaw and his wife, Heather, had never been to Waco until they arrived Sunday for a visit to the Central Texas campus.
   Baylor now has the Big 12's youngest basketball coach in Scott Drew, 32, and the youngest athletic director in the polished, marketing-savvy McCaw.   "We want to ... establish Baylor as the preeminent Baptist, Protestant, Christian athletic program and garner the same level of support that Notre Dame does in the Catholic Community and that Brigham Young does in the Mormon community," the new director said.
   "We want young men and women to grow up dreaming about coming to Baylor University and competing for Baylor University," he said.
   McCaw's arrival is a departure from the school's preference of hiring from within the "Baylor family," which has hatched most of the school's former athletic directors.
   Baylor president Robert Sloan said neither he nor the search committee was concerned with McCaw's age. Instead, they focused on his experience, energy and ethics.
   "He has a reputation as a man of character, faith and integrity, who knows how to solve problems and how to motivate those around him to achieve their very best," Sloan said.
   "Ian and coach Drew love and appreciate the kind of institution we are. They can not only promote our values, but embrace our values," he said.
   McCaw will need all his tools to tackle a messy situation at Baylor, where a summer of disgrace has frayed the athletic department.
   To some extent, that situation has tarnished the university.
   Basketball coach Dave Bliss and athletic director Tom Stanton both resigned Aug. 8 amid allegations of scandal.
   McCaw said he would begin in about two weeks.
   He said he's looking forward to inheriting his seat in the administrative complex that overlooks Floyd Casey Stadium.
   Once there, he said Baylor's membership in the Big 12, its recently updated facilities, its primary selling point of academics in a Christian environment and its quality stable of coaches provide all Baylor needs to battle past the recent struggles.
   McCaw has had little time to dive into the ongoing probe of the basketball program and said he does not plan to be a major factor in the ongoing investigation.
   "I'm not going to spend a lot of time worrying about the history and worrying about the past," he said.
   He did outline a general compliance strategy. McCaw said part of his organizational plan involves building compliance into the responsibility of every department employee.
   That way, he says, everyone has an ownership in compliance.
   "By doing that, there are checks and balances to make sure that problems do not arise," he said.
   "In my view, his strong and dedicated leadership, not to mention his impeccable character, will truly serve as a great complement to the faith-based mission at Baylor," White said.
   McCaw does not come from a football background. But he says he's aware of the sport's place culturally, fiscally or otherwise in the Southwest.
   The new director also recognizes that football is the egress to all the other roads toward athletic department success.
   "Football is the financial engine to the entire athletic program," he said.
   "If we are successful in football, it helps in fund raising, it helps with corporate sponsorships, with ticket sales, all of our revenue streams," he said.
   Even though he has not directly overseen a Division I-A football program, he did help recruit coach Tommy Bowden to Tulane and worked at previous stops with Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and Stanford head coach Buddy Teevens.