[Chris Lang]

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... th=!sports

Liberty hires new AD

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
January 23, 2006

Liberty University culminated a two-month search for a new athletics director when it announced the hiring of Jeff Barber Sunday night.

Barber, who spent the last 10 years as a senior associate athletics director at the University of South Carolina, replaces Thom Park, who resigned in November on the same day former football coach Ken Karcher was dismissed.

Barber was the executive director of the Gamecock Club, USC's booster organization.

"Jeff is just the perfect fit for Liberty University," said the Rev. Jerry Falwell, LU's chancellor. "He has been involved in every part of the athletic department and fund-raising and he's a very committed Christian."

Barber becomes the ninth athletics director in the school's history.

Barber joined the USC staff in 1996 as the assistant athletics director for development and was responsible for overseeing Gamecock Club operations and the fund-raising efforts for capital projects and later was promoted to executive director.

Under Barber's watch, the Gamecock Club raised a record amount of money the past four years, with donations exceeding the $12.1 million mark in 2004.

Barber said he will start work at Liberty Feb. 13.

"I'm really excited to have this opportunity," Barber said.

"I feel I'm very prepared to be an athletics director and to be able to do it as a school like Liberty is a dream come true.

"The thing I saw more than anything else was a commitment to excellence. Liberty is very dedicated to putting a successful athletics program together. I felt a tremendous amount of support."

Before his stint at South Carolina, Barber worked as an associate athletics director for external affairs at Furman, a South Carolina school that plays Division I-AA football.

Falwell said he had "six to eight viable candidates" for the job, but that Barber "was far and away the best fit for our situation."

Barber is a 1981 graduate of East Carolina University and grew up in Greenville, N.C.

[Sly Fox]

So it appears that perhaps Lou Holtz wound up helping us out in the long run. And the best news is that he apparently is a master fundraiser. Let's see if he can work the same magic in our Athletic Department that he did for the past decade with the Gamecock Club.

Here is Barber's bio from the South Carolina official website:

Jeff Barber

Position:
Sr. Assoc. AD/Director of Gamecock Club

Jeff Barber is in his 10th year with the Gamecock athletics department and his seventh as the executive director of the Gamecock Club. Barber, who joined the USC staff in 1996 as assistant athletics director for development, is responsible for overseeing Gamecock Club operations and the fundraising efforts for capital projects. The Gamecock Club has raised a record amount of money the past four years, with donations exceeding the $12.1 million mark in 2004.

Barber worked as the Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs at Furman for one year while holding down the Paladin Club Executive Director post from 1991 until his move to Carolina. Prior to that time, he spent four years at East Carolina, where he was the Assistant Director of the Pirate Club.

A native of Greenville, N.C., Barber has ties to the Midlands, having worked and lived in Columbia as the Assistant General Manager of the Columbia Mets minor league baseball team from 1985-86, and as a teacher and coach from 1981-85. For one year prior to his stint at East Carolina, Barber was Director of Operations at the Montreal Expos Spring Training Camp in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Barber is a 1997 graduate of the Sports Management Institute and also is a member of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors.

Barber graduated cum laude from East Carolina in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. He and his wife, Donna, have two daughters, Katie (10), and Lindsay (8 ), and a son, Jay (7).

http://uscsports.collegesports.com/genr ... eff00.html

Back in June 2004 he was leading candidate for the AD position at East Carolina before pulling himself out of the running once he learned more about the situation:

Ballard takes different road in AD search
By Nathan Summers, The Daily Reflector

The tactics are changing, but the quest remains the same: East Carolina University still needs an athletic director ...

One casualty of the extensive search was Jeff Barber, currently associate athletic director and executive director of the Gamecock Club at the University of South Carolina. Ballard traveled to Columbia to watch the ECU baseball team play in the NCAA Super Regionals last weekend and, while there, met with Barber. Ultimately, however, Barber presented Ballard a letter asking that his name be removed from consideration.

So the search continues.

"All three people the committee put forth were qualified," Ballard said of the initial search committee's findings. "There's a lot to do with fit and meeting several criteria. All three people from before were quite qualified.

"We're going to try to develop a consensus that did not emerge from the previous search."

http://www.reflector.com/sports/newsfd/ ... .7830.html

[A.G.]

Liberty must be getting better at keeping secrets. Usually you guys are all over this sort of thing. Looks like a great hire.

[Hold My Own]

I made the mistake not asking, who's the leading person the last few weeks

[givemethemic]

Well I will say this that I am glad that this is finally signed, sealed, and delievered. It Will be interesting to see how the fundraising goes... just remember that the last 4 years Lou Holtz and the old ball coach have been there so let's not raise the bar to high off the start.

[Hold My Own]

1 thing I can say is that this is Holtz's man, so if he's willing to step up to the plate for this man then he should be OK....it's good to see he was in the running at another school for the AD position though, I dont like taking good businessmen and leaders and trying to make them into a hybrid AD

[PAmedic]

Liberty must be getting better at keeping secrets. Usually you guys are all over this sort of thing. Looks like a great hire.

yeah, gotta say- I'm more than a little embarressed. My source let me down here a bit! Maybe he forgot how to read his emails!

[bigsmooth]

good hire. if anyone has ever been down to the university of south carolina, they have excellent facilities and are truly good at fundraising. i have a friend that is in the gamecock club, and beside their football stadium they have some old railroad cabooses that the call a cock-a-boose...stupid i know, but thse things have been refurbished and they are used for tailgate parties. many are rented for the full season, and some are game by game, but these things are the ultimate for tailgaters, and a huge source of revenue of south carolina. im sure mr. barber had something to do with that, but it is really unique. im sure he will do a great job! welcome to LU!

[Stevev]

I feel good about his background as an administrator and LU could use his fund raising skills. I also hope that he resolves our pitiful football conference situation.

[Chris Lang]

Liberty must be getting better at keeping secrets. Usually you guys are all over this sort of thing. Looks like a great hire.

Haha. This may be the first time I've actually broken news that you guys didn't already know about. That's not a bad thing ... it's a testament to how plugged in some of the posters are here.

[Sly Fox]

Take your bows when you can, Chris.

We said from the outset that the new AD would need to be able to sell refrigerators to Eskimos. The more research I do on Barber the more evident it is that he fits the bill. As for inexperience at being an AD, I feel his experience inside the Athletic Offices at South Carolina have him well prepared.

[RedDog]

Let's hope this guy can get it done ... Anyone can fundraise at South Carolina when you have Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier to sell ... He will have a good staff with Mickey Guriday and Kevin Keys working with him ... I just wonder where the money is going to come from that this guy is trying to raise ... Most of the sources that have real money already have been tapped by JF and anyone else from the school ...

[Sly Fox]

Welcome to the board, RedDog.

Barber was successfully raising big money for the Gamecock Club back when they were awful before Lou arrived. Obviously having high profile coaches makes the task easier. But he's shown a penchant for creativity that will play a key role in generating revenue.

[Guest]

It's not hard to raise money at South Carolina because of three letters, SEC ... No matter how good or bad a team is, people want to be around big-time athletics, especially in conferences where teams play for the national championship on a yearly basis ... Big-time football opponents, Game-day, tailgating, etc. draw a lot of people and their money to a school ... Most people don't realize that South Carolina is one of the richest SEC schools out there probably next to Tennessee, Florida and Georgia ...

This guy needs to be more than creative because there has to be money out there to be able to find it ... It is very hard to raise the kind of money at Liberty that is needed to have a successful athletic program. I've been around a long time and know a lot of people that have come and gone ... The kind of money that it takes to run a real athletic department isn't out there in Lynchburg and the ones that have that kind of money already are giving to Virginia and Tech and aren't goiing to give to Liberty.

[Guest]

It's not hard to raise money at South Carolina because of three letters, SEC ... No matter how good or bad a team is, people want to be around big-time athletics, especially in conferences where teams play for the national championship on a yearly basis ... Big-time football opponents, Game-day, tailgating, etc. draw a lot of people and their money to a school ... Most people don't realize that South Carolina is one of the richest SEC schools out there probably next to Tennessee, Florida and Georgia ...

This guy needs to be more than creative because there has to be money out there to be able to find it ... It is very hard to raise the kind of money at Liberty that is needed to have a successful athletic program. I've been around a long time and know a lot of people that have come and gone ... The kind of money that it takes to run a real athletic department isn't out there in Lynchburg and the ones that have that kind of money already are giving to Virginia and Tech and aren't goiing to give to Liberty.

[Hold My Own]

JF has "tapped" a lot of money but none of it is even close to being Tapped Out, in fact the phone line between Jerry and Art Williams has been very busy lately and something could very well be on the burner

[Sly Fox]

Have I mentioned how much I love that man Art lately?

Here's another write-up on Barber from the Charlotte fishwrap:

Gamecock Club’s Barber will be Liberty’s AD

Former Gamecock Club director Jeff Barber is changing jobs again — and this time he is changing schools.

Barber has accepted an offer to become Liberty University’s athletics director, the school announced Sunday night. The 47-year-old Barber starts Feb. 13 at the Lexington, Va., school that the Rev. Jerry Falwell founded in 1971.

“I’ve wanted to be an AD, and there are not a whole lot of these positions available,” Barber said. “I really feel I have a chance to go there and make a difference in their program.”

Barber said Liberty is “making a huge commitment to athletics.” The Flames recently hired Virginia assistant Danny Rocco as its football coach. Work has started on a $7.5 million football building, and the Division I-AA football program is considering moving to I-A.

The Gamecock Club hit record levels for donations in each of Barber’s seven years as director. The East Carolina graduate recently had taken a position as USC’s senior athletics director for development.

He was slated to work with the university’s development office to raise money for first-year athletics director Eric Hyman’s forthcoming facilities plan. USC has not hired a new Gamecock Club director.

— Joseph Person

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 696365.htm

[givemethemic]

I forgot that I live in Lexington.....

[Agent2Be]

There is no money in Lynchburg to support a DI athletic program. The benefit of the LU fan base is that it is global. No other Big South school can boast the alumni reach that LU has. Lynchburg can still be tapped. We have to bring home a winner and put fannies in the seats. We are addressing this by hiring Coach Rocco. Give us a season or two of winning, and the local money will come in. Thing is though - you have to be creative. AD Barber sounds as if he is creative which will go a long way to reach the pocket books of local sponsors.

[Stevev]

We put those fannies in the seats by playing respectable teams that the community can relate to like William and Mary, James Madison, Richmond, and Appalachian State. The Charleston Southerns of the world just don't cut it with the local community.

[Stevev]

I forgot to mention winning. When we win, attendance will go up 3X more.

[Hold My Own]

oh yeh, theres lots of money in Lynchburg and that bridge is just starting to be built by people like Randy Dunton reaching out to them for the first time...heck theres a man in Lynchburg with buildings named after him up at VT and they also allow him to have a cook out before each football game right at the front door...it's a huge area just for him and his friends

[SuperJon]

Stevev, you somewhat contradict yourself in your two posts. You say we should play Bill and Mary or App St to get people there but then you also say we need to win games to put people in the stands. App St wouldn't even consider going to Coastal so you know there's no chance in the bad place tha they'd consider coming here. Even if they did, at this point in time, we are nowhere near the level of App St. Coastal wasn't even in their league.

I think it's ok to have some lower teir I-AA's on the schedule this year or the year after it until Coach Rocco gets all of his stuff in place. While we're building, we need to get wins to teach our players to know how to win. I'm not talking that flat out horrible I-AA's like Savannah State, but maybe Presbyterian (if they don't join the Big South) or Winston-Salem State or something like that. Go for the lower teir SoCon or CAA schools and see if we can compete against those guys.

I may be in the minority thinking that a semi-weak schedule for a year or two would be a good thing. There's no point in playing 2 I-As and then upper-tier I-AAs and getting beat by 20 or more every week.

[Stevev]

I kind of think that you need a combination of the 2 (good competition and winning) similiar to what has been happening to our womens hoops team. When we play teams like Virginia Tech, Virginia, Kentucky, and teams that are similiar we can draw upwards to 4K or more. But the wins vs the much weaker BSC and teams similiar in talent set it all up as long as we win the games that we are supposed to win and win big. Of course it helps to be competitive against that tough competition. If we could give App State or James Madison a good game in football then that would certainly help our cause in bringing in the fans and drawing serious interest.

As far as schedule strength is concerned the BSC right now should be the weak link in the schedule. Beyond that it is okay to schedule middle of the road and lower tier Southern or Atlantic 10 teams right now until we get things in place. I wouldn't go too much lower than that right now.

[Agent2Be]

One thing we are missing (as far as community ties and money) is recruiting. If we were recruiting locally, that would draw people automatically. Just a hunch, but I have a feeling Rashad Jennings will put fannies in the seats because he is local and played at a big time university. Pick off one blue chipper or a few second tier recruits in the area, and you have instant community support. LCA should be a factory for the LU team. We should also be picking off EC Glass, Forest, Bedford and all of the other schools within a 50 mile radius. Not all of those kids are good enough for DI, but I am sure many of them are good enough for D1AA.