SOURCES: The Next Texas A&M University-Commerce Athletic Director

Sources tell College AD, Tim McMurray will be named the next Texas A&M University-Commerce Athletic Director. The announcement will be made at the University’s press conference this afternoon at 3:00 PM Central Standard Time.

McMurray is the CEO and Founder of Rainmakers 123 LLC, an athletic consulting company. He brings more than 25 years of experience in athletic administration to A&M-Commerce serving mostly recently as senior associate athletic director and executive director of the Terrapin Club at the University of Maryland. He also spent three years as the associate athletic director and director of the Mustang Club at Southern Methodist University, as well as stints with Northern Illinois, Lamar and Texas State.

Additionally, McMurray served at the national level as President of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (2009-10) and also served six years on the NAADD Executive Committee.

Sources told College AD September 17th that A&M Commerce President, Dan R. Jones would offer the university’s next Athletic Director position by October 1st.

Open sessions were held with candidates Tim McMurray, CEO of Rainmakers, and Chris Ratcliff, Director of Athletics at University of Arkansas-Monticello the week of September 14th. The following week, open sessions were held with the final two candidates, Matt Jones, Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs/Operations at Delta State and Daron Montgomery, Director of Athletics at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.

Sources also detailed to College AD that the athletic department will look to hire for two administrative positions following Tim McMurray’s hire.

McMurray replaces former Texas A&M University-Commerce Athletic Director, Ryan Ivey. Sources told College AD, August 4th, 2015 that Ivey would become the next Athletic Director at Austin Peay State University.

McMurray inherits a program on the rise. During Ivey’s tenure with the Lions, Ivey oversaw a complete overhaul in culture within the department. In 2014-15, A&M-Commerce claimed six Lone Star Conference championships – the most in a single-season in school history.  Ivey also saw the renovation of the floor in the Field House, the new turf at Memorial Stadium with the largest on-field logo in the world, a new indoor men’s and women’s golf facility, the new James Thrower Academic Center and the newly-minted John Cain Family Softball Field that housed the Lion softball program that just completed its inaugural season in 2015.