Schaus Named New Commissioner of the Southern Conference
Buffkin Baker/College Sports Solutions is pleased to announce the placement of Jim Schaus, Ohio University Director of Athletics, as the new commissioner of the Southern Conference. The team of Jeff Schemmel of College Sports Solutions and Dan Walters of Buffkin Baker led the search process, identifying, recruiting, vetting and interviewing the pool of candidates from which Mr. Schaus was selected.
Schaus will be the ninth commissioner in league history and succeeds John Iamarino, who announced his retirement in March following a 13-year career at the helm of the league office.
“It is truly an honor to serve as the ninth commissioner in the storied history of the Southern Conference,” Schaus said. “I believe that my varied career experiences in college athletics will assist me in this important leadership role for outstanding member institutions. I look forward to working with the staff and conference membership to build upon past successes in the quest to be the premier mid-major conference in the country. It will be a priority to be successful athletically, academically and support the personal well-being of our student-athletes. I can’t wait to get started!”
Schaus comes to the SoCon after an 11-year run as the Director of Athletics at Ohio, where he led the Bobcats to unprecedented levels of athletic and academic success.
Dr. Brian Noland, ETSU President and chair of the search committee, lauded the services of the team, saying “On behalf of the Southern Conference, I would like to thank the staffs at College Sports Solutions/Buffkin Baker for their invaluable leadership during our search for a new conference commissioner. Jeff Schemmel and his team brought a detailed knowledge of the NCAA landscape, as well as rich understanding of higher education policy to our search process. Their access to a broad network yielded a diverse candidate pool, from which emerged our new Commissioner, Mr. Jim Schaus. Once again, I would like to thank Jeff and his team for their guidance that yielded a productive and fruitful search.”
Buffkin Baker/College Sports Solutions formed a partnership in January 2019 to better serve universities and colleges in finding and hiring exceptional talent in college athletics. The expertise and decades of college athletics experience of the College Sports Solutions team and the success of Buffkin Baker in higher education academic searches provides clients with the very best in executive search services.