After Syracuse names a chancellor, two candidates for athletic director emerge

Welcome to the Syracuse athletic department's month of madness which happens to be landing as March comes in with a new university leader.

Chancellor-elect Mike Haynie is now officially on board and fully in the midst of transitioning from Kent Syverud, and with a multitude of initial endeavors, several with time sensitive deadlines. One of which is likely reviewing the recommendations from the search committee and consultant on who should be the next leader of the athletic department to follow John Wildhack.

That decision, of course, will then have a ripple effect on who will be coaching the men's basketball team moving forward, following a disappointing year teetering on losing record that could end as soon as next Tuesday evening in Charlotte in the ACC Tournament.

Two candidates getting a lot of discussion to be the next athletic director.

As the school zeroes in on Wildhack's replacement, which will in turn set the course for the future direction of the basketball program's leadership, we look at two names we are hearing have been receiving plenty of attention, one of whom we speculated about just over a week ago.

Nick Carparelli - As we wrote, Carparelli's 30-year plus resume stands out for its versatility, covering major college sports programs, the NFL, the Big East, Under Armour, and now completing seven seasons as executive director of the Bowl Season sponsored by corporate partner Coca Cola. And, yes, the Syracuse Orange box is checked off with his 1994 Master in Business Administration, and two years as a graduate assistant football coach under Paul Pasqualoni.

Carparelli, endorsed by many SU stakeholders on social media, has worked in tandem with the College Football Playoff on executing the non-championship portion of the sport's post-season games.

A place, by the way, where Fran Brown (in attendance Tuesday at the chancellor-elect ceremony) regularly expects to have his program starting as soon as the upcoming 2026 season, which begins six months (September 5 at home vs. New Hampshire) from this Thursday.

Dr, Andrew Goodrich - Just over a decade after earning his doctorate in higher education from South Florida where he specialized in athletics marketing/branding, Andrew Goodrich has moved up to become an FBS AD at Akron since May 2025, following a three-year run as AD at FCS Gardner-Webb (N.C.).

That followed his Syracuse connection to the job, in which he excelled on a multitude of fronts under both Syverud's and Wildhack's leadership from 2018-2022, serving as the Deputy Director of Athletics and Chief Marketing Officer.

Among Goodrich's areas of responsibility, as listed on his current Akron bio, was his work in ushering in the NIL era at the 'Cuse, serving as the school's liaison to the ACC Network, part of working groups handling ACC branding/marketing/revenue development, and football strategy.

And as far as Orange basketball and marketing under Goodrich's watch, SU set the NCAA single game attendance record of 35,642 for the 2019 Duke contest in the Dome, previewing that with the right coach and players returning the program to its winning ways, an AD with Goodrich's institutional knowledge would make sure the large crowds would (again) show up in person.

SUPPORT THE JUICE ONLINE

Follow us on Twitter @TheJuiceOnline, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram @SUJuiceOnline and listen to our podcast.