Syracuse athletic director Coyle abruptly leaves for same job at Minnesota

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Mark Coyle’s tenure as Syracuse University’s director of athletics is over after less than 11 months.

Coyle is leaving Syracuse for a job at the University of Minnesota, citing “family reasons” for his departure, Syracuse announced in a news release issued Wednesday morning.

The university’s statement included just 24 words: “Mark Coyle has informed the University, that for family reasons, he is leaving the University for a position at Minnesota. We wish him well.”

The University of Minnesota’s president, Eric Kaler, today announced in a news release that Coyle is “the finalist for the university’s director of Gopher Athletics position.”

Coyle’s tenure at Syracuse
Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud on June 19, 2015 announced he had selected Coyle as the school’s director of athletics.

Syracuse hired him from Boise State University, where he has also been athletic director. Before Boise State, Coyle was deputy athletics director at the University of Kentucky.

In his time with the Orange, Coyle fired Scott Shafer as head football coach on Nov. 23, 2015, replacing him a few weeks later with Dino Babers, the successful Bowling Green head coach.

The Syracuse athletics department’s accomplishments during Coyle’s time included both the men’s and women’s basketball teams advancing to the Final Fours of their respective NCAA Tournaments this April.

The men’s cross country running team and the women’s field hockey team both secured national championships in late 2015.

Coyle’s departure for Minnesota is a homecoming of sorts. He served as associate athletic director for external relations at the University of Minnesota from 2001 to 2005, where he managed the marketing and sales unit, athletic communications, the ticket office, and licensing, according to the Minnesota’s news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com