Wichita State University fires Shockers athletic director Darron Boatright
Wichita State fired athletic director Darron Boatright, who has led the athletic department since 2016, on Wednesday.
The Eagle first reported the firing Wednesday morning and university president Rick Muma later confirmed the news, saying in a press release that “while there were certainly achievements and successes during Darron’s tenure, there were significant, ongoing concerns that became acute in recent weeks, ones that I did not believe could be addressed.”
Sarah Adams, who was hired last summer as a senior associate athletic director and senior women’s administrator, will become interim athletic director. Adams served as deputy athletic director at Eastern Washington before joining the Shockers.
“I am confident that she will provide us with the leadership, stability and compassion needed during the transition,” Muma said.
Muma said in the release that “with the assistance of an experienced search firm, we will immediately launch a national search for a new director of athletics who shares our values, our vision and our passion for Shocker sports and will work expediently but diligently to identify a new leader of our athletics program.”
Boatright will go down in history as the athletic director who helped guide Wichita State from the Missouri Valley to the American Athletic Conference, but criticism from the WSU fan base had been mounting. Earlier this week, a crowd-sourced GoFundMe helped buy two billboards in Wichita titled “Save Shocker Sports” featuring Boatright’s picture and a hashtag calling to fire him.
He had been under fire from fans since February, when a Kansas Open Records Act request by The Eagle revealed WSU had given him a two-year contract extension through June 2024 that was never publicized by the university when signed in October 2020. The secretive nature of the extension, which also gave Boatright a 37.5% raise in salary to $275,000 annually at a time when the athletic department was strained in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, drew the ire of fans.
Sources have told The Eagle that Boatright tried to decline the raise, but was overruled by Muma.
It also unclear by Muma’s language in the press release — he mentions only there will be a “transition” — if Boatright was fired with or without cause. An email asking for confirmation from a WSU spokesperson was not immediately returned.
If Boatright was terminated for cause, he is only owed the compensation up to the date of termination. If it was without cause, then WSU’s financial obligation is the remaining amount of his base salary through the end of the contract, which will be paid to Boatright within 30 days of the date of termination. There’s also a clause that stipulates that Boatright has the “obligation to minimize the payments due to him” and to make “every reasonable effort to obtain other employment.” If Boatright obtains a new job, then WSU’s pay-outs would be reduced by his new compensation or ceased if it exceeds the compensation owed by WSU.
Boatright’s contract extension was signed during a frantic time at Wichita State, exactly two weeks after WSU acknowledged it had launched an independent investigation into abuse allegations made against men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall, who would reach a $7.75 million settlement to resign on Nov. 17, 2020.
Fans have been frustrated about WSU’s lack of transparency regarding the tumultuous end of the Marshall era, although all parties involved in the settlement signed non-disclosure agreements.
Another area of criticism has been WSU lagging behind in the rapidly evolving world of name, image and likeness. Boatright told The Eagle he took a cautious approach to the NIL world, which backfired when the NCAA was unable to enforce the regulations it initially told schools to follow.
Because schools are not allowed to facilitate NIL deals for its own student-athletes, Boatright couldn’t single-handedly form a NIL collective. But coaches and other NIL collectives have told The Eagle that it should have been the role of an athletic director to make sure the donor base was aware of the changes and the importance of NIL.
Boatright hired both of WSU’s highest-profile coaches: men’s basketball coach Isaac Brown, whom he elevated to a permanent position with a five-year contract following an AAC championship run in 2021, and baseball coach Eric Wedge, who was hired in 2019.
Both hires were met with optimism at the time, although both coaches have struggled in their most recent season. The WSU men’s basketball team had a disappointing 15-13 campaign and then seven scholarship players entered the NCAA transfer portal, while the baseball team is in the midst of a 15-30 season in Wedge’s second full season.
Other accomplishments for Boatright, who worked in the WSU athletic department for 12 years, included overseeing the fundraising efforts for the Eck Stadium renovations and the $13.8 million Student-Athlete Center that opened in 2020.
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 11:35 AM.
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