FanHouse St. Louis Billikens

Wanted: One Athletic Director. Duties include oversight of non-revenue and Olympic sports. No football team. Oversight of the men's basketball team handled by the university president. Must be willing to accept direct meddling, blame and open knowledge by all of a lack of any actual power. Must also be willing to pretend the job is more than a stepping stone to a better opportunity. Ability to suck-up to rich donors, required. Low self-esteem a plus.

Cheryl Levick resigned as the Athletic Director (AD) at St. Louis University. She will be moving to the University of Maryland to be the chief of staff/executive senior associate director of athletics under Debbie Yow -- also a former AD at St. Louis.

Levick's time at SLU effectively ended in April, when Brad Soderberg was fired as basketball coach after Levick had recommended he be given one more season. The school's president, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, overruled her and fired Soderberg. Then Biondi took over the hiring process that led to the arrival of Rick Majerus -- Levick never conducted a one-on-one interview with the coach -- and she essentially had been stripped of her authority. With the two most important decisions in the department taken away, her position at SLU was widely seen as untenable and her departure inevitable.

Levick lasted only 3 years at St. Louis. Her eventual replacement will be the 6th AD since Rev. Lawrence Biondi became President of St. Louis University in 1987. The two prior ADs moved to bigger jobs. Debbie Yow went to Maryland and Doug Woolard is now the South Florida AD.

Give St. Louis University credit for making a late decision on firing and hiring a coach. They have seemingly captured a lot more attention than a mid-level A-10 school that has 6 NCAA Tournament appearances in its history should. Heck, the AOL NCAA Basketball Blog almost appears to be a Billiken Blog.

One of the little side stories is the persistent rumor that St. Louis may now look to bolt the A-10 after only a few years to get back into the Missouri Valley Conference. It has been reported that Rick Majerus himself, was pushing for it as a precondition to taking the job. A conference on which they bailed in 1974 after 37 years. To be fair, they were hardly the only school to jump out of the MVC at that time. Cincinnati (1969), Memphis (1973), Louisville and North Texas (1974) all skipped out on the MVC in the same period. Since then, they have been in 5 more conferences. Seemingly striving for higher profile conferences, even as their own profile remained distinctly mediocre.

Since this is the off-season, and the NBA draft is still far enough away not to be relevant, there is some debate and curiosity about this. There appears to be serious buyers remorse in St. Louis about going to the A-10.

It is now going on year 20 and 4 coaches since St. Louis University President, Rev. Lawrence Biondi's goal for having a perennial top-50 basketball program. Heck, that goal was listed in the Billiken press release when Brad Sodenberg was suddenly fired in mid-April.

It was determined that a coaching change is necessary if the University is to achieve its goal of consistently having one of the nation's top basketball programs.

There was something somewhat refreshing in the blatant honesty in the press release for firing the coach.

Because the success of the new Chaifetz Arena is largely contingent on the success of the men's basketball team, it is imperative that the team be led by a coach who we believe can establish a program that consistently vies for conference championships and engages in postseason play. The new head coach also must be committed to the University's history of following NCAA regulations and graduating its student-athletes.

Note, of course, that wins come first. The rest comes under, "also." The reason for the firing is clearly there. Money. The Billikens are moving into a new on campus arena and having 50% or less capacity as it has been at the Scottrade Arena won't cut it. They need real revenue that comes from a packed house.

Now you know why they are going after a name like Majerus. They need him. He's a name that generates instant credibility and buzz about a program that has made itself a nomad. Having been in 6 conferences in the past 33 years -- Missouri Valley until 1974; Metro to 1982; the now Horizon League (previously called the Midwestern Collegiate) through 1991; the Great Midwest/Conference USA (C-USA was a merger of the Great Midwest and the Metro) until 2004; and now in the Atlantic 10.