Baylor Football

Breaking: Mack Rhoades Officially OUT as Baylor's Athletic Director

Mack Rhoades has officially stepped down as Baylor’s athletic director, SicEm365 has confirmed.
November 20, 2025
57k Views
86 Comments
Story Poster
Photo by Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

*Sign Up for 7 days of SicEm365 Premium for $1 to Keep Track of Baylor’s AD Hiring Process*

Mack Rhoades has officially stepped down as Baylor’s athletic director, SicEm365 has confirmed. ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported the news.

Rhoades was the center of national headlines following an alleged verbal and physical altercation with star tight end Michael Trigg on Sept. 20, when the Bears faced Arizona State.

Rhoades was cleared of wrongdoing by the school, but less than a week after the Trigg story broke, Rhoades missed a dinner with prominent donors and took a self-initiated leave of absence, effective Wednesday, Nov. 12.

The leave, however, was not connected to any Title IX matters, problems within the football program or NCAA rules issues; it was due to personal reasons. Rhoades also had to step down as the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Rhoades took over in July 2016, and across his 10 years in Waco, Baylor has won 24 Big 12 titles and 10 national championships. Since 2011, Baylor has led the country in combined wins among football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.

Baylor will be searching for a new athletic director for the first time since 2016 — a pivotal moment for the athletic department and university. It also comes at a time when the new athletic director will likely have to coordinate a coaching search, as it’s expected that football head coach Dave Aranda will not stick around for a seventh season.

The current co-interim athletic directors are Jovan Overshown and Cody Hall.

*Subscribe to SicEm365 Premium to see which three names are being looked at closely to replace Rhoades*

86 Comments
Discussion from...

Breaking: Mack Rhoades Officially OUT as Baylor's Athletic Director

26,638 Views | 86 Replies | Last: 15 days ago by boognish_bear
whitetrash
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Married A Horn
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Finally.
whitetrash
How long do you want to ignore this user?
BUATX2000
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Finally some movement in the right direction
lakersfan34
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Step 1 done, now hire an AD in the next week, fire Dave after season and hire the coach. Definitely trending in right direction now.
bear2be2
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Least surprising news ever. But at least we've cleared this first hurdle. Now we need to make sure we don't trip over the next two.
BellCountyBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I called it two days ago.
IowaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
The first and biggest step. Now it's time to kick Dave to the curb
Aliceinbubbleland
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Well that's encouraging. Apparently we still have a few BMD's hanging around.

Thank you Miami Hurricanes. 10-3. :)
Bear2014
How long do you want to ignore this user?
i bet my savings that Jeremiah Dickey will once again be a Baylor Bear. Let's just hope he doesnt bring the boise state football coach
Stefano DiMera
How long do you want to ignore this user?
BUGWBBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
IowaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Spencer Danielson? Baylor could do a hell of a lot worse than Danielson
Stefano DiMera
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Bear2014 said:

i bet my savings that Jeremiah Dickey will once again be a Baylor Bear. Let's just hope he doesnt bring the boise state football coach


Is a 21-7 record bad?
Bear2014
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Boise is not even a top 5 G6 team. Why would we want that?
IowaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
They went to the playoffs literally a year ago.. Danielson can coach.
Stefano DiMera
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Bear2014 said:

Boise is not even a top 5 G6 team. Why would we want that?


Neither was Houston or Temple when we got Briles or Rhule.

What kind of logic is that?
bear2be2
How long do you want to ignore this user?
IowaBear said:

They went to the playoffs literally a year ago.. Danielson can coach.

I think the jury is still out on Danielson, who I've been high on in the in past. Boise's offense has taken a nosedive without Jeanty. They get held to seven points every time they face a good defense.

I agree with your earlier take that we could do worse than Danielson, but there are a lot of (seemingly very attainable guys) I'd rather kick the tires on first.
Stefano DiMera
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Just read Danielson's bio.

He is a HUGE Christian.. opens every press conference thanking God. Helped baptize Ashton Jeanty when he left for NFL last year.
bear2be2
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Stefano DiMera said:

Just read Danielson's bio.

He is a HUGE Christian.. opens every press conference thanking God. Helped baptize Ashton Jeanty when he left for NFL last year.

Danielson would be a great fit culturally. Any critiques I have of him are strictly football related.
IowaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I'm not advocating for Danielson but the notion 2014 is trying to push that Danielson is a scrub or whatever is just flat inaccurate
Bearsalwayswin
How long do you want to ignore this user?
mosley and morris + mestemaker (and keep spav)

dickey and morris + mestemaker (and keep spav)
blackie
How long do you want to ignore this user?
bear2be2 said:

Stefano DiMera said:

Just read Danielson's bio.

He is a HUGE Christian.. opens every press conference thanking God. Helped baptize Ashton Jeanty when he left for NFL last year.

Danielson would be a great fit culturally. Any critiques I have of him are strictly football related.

DA was and remains a great fit culturally, so your critiques on what he would be here to do is warranted..
Bearsalwayswin
How long do you want to ignore this user?
agree dave is really a perfect fit….except on the actual football on the field part
bear2be2
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Bearsalwayswin said:

mosley and morris + mestemaker (and keep spav)

dickey and morris + mestemaker (and keep spav)

Morris wouldn't have any use for Spavital. He calls his own plays.
Quinton
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Great news, much needed. Very real chance to put new life into the athletic department.

Hire a great coach, evaluate and retain a ton of the class, full press to try and retain Hall and Baker
Space Cutter
How long do you want to ignore this user?
With this news of Rhodes being gone we should all be VERY CONCERNED about who or what Lady Livingstone will try to hire. Her leadership record is not so good. But as far as replacing Aranda, let's don't rush out and grab the shiny new coach. We did that before and got a bon a fide defensive genius as our HC. That's worked out really well.

New HC needs Texas hs coaches background, innovation on the offensive side & is a motivator. Hungry to win and a real strategy to win.
Bearsalwayswin
How long do you want to ignore this user?
didn't know that, im sure it wouldn't hurt to alleviate some stress off him moving up a level….would be a cool pairing too
bear2be2
How long do you want to ignore this user?
blackie said:

bear2be2 said:

Stefano DiMera said:

Just read Danielson's bio.

He is a HUGE Christian.. opens every press conference thanking God. Helped baptize Ashton Jeanty when he left for NFL last year.

Danielson would be a great fit culturally. Any critiques I have of him are strictly football related.

DA was and remains a great fit culturally, so your critiques on what he would be here to do is warranted..

Agree completely. I almost made the point that I don't want to risk the hire of another coach who gets everything right but the football.

I want the next guy to bring the football component with him.
bear2be2
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Bearsalwayswin said:

didn't know that, im sure it wouldn't hurt to alleviate some stress off him moving up a level….would be a cool pairing too

I just can't see Morris having any interest in giving that up or Spavital having any interest in being a figurehead OC.

If you hire Morris, a big part of the reason is his ability to evaluate and develop quarterbacks and then call offensive plays on Saturday. Spavital would just be a redundant piece.
blackie
How long do you want to ignore this user?
bear2be2 said:

Bearsalwayswin said:

didn't know that, im sure it wouldn't hurt to alleviate some stress off him moving up a level….would be a cool pairing too

I just can't see Morris having any interest in giving that up or Spavital having any interest in being a figurehead OC.

If you hire Morris, a big part of the reason is his ability to evaluate and develop quarterbacks and then call offensive plays on Saturday. Spavital would just be a redundant piece.

I realize that people want the video game offense, but for me, I am tired of being in the position as we were even with Art to score 63 points in a game and we still lose. Defense has GOT to be a big part of it. If the other team can't score you can win.
VaeBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Rhoades should have been gone last Friday.
ImABearToo
How long do you want to ignore this user?
We've had great success with a HC calling the offensive plays before. I say we return to that strategy.
“Life is short, eat desert first!”
IowaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
You're going to be hard pressed to bring a coach in who has both units playing at an elite level. Your best bet is to find a coach (preferably offensive mind) who has an elite O and a serviceable D. That's the secret sauce imo. Those types of coaches aren't coming to BU.
Stefano DiMera
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I'm not concerned.

Unless you're one of those traumatized because some statues got moved.

She's turned Baylor into a Tier 1 institution which is something a lot of our peers can't even snif.
Last Page
Page 1 of 3
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.