Mizzou's hires Rhoades as new athletic director

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri has named Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades IV as the school's new AD.

The school said Monday that Rhoades will assume the post in late April after the board of curators approved the hire in a special session.

Rhoades succeeds Mike Alden, who announced in January that he will step down at the end of the summer after 17 years. The 49-year-old Rhoades was a candidate for Texas A&M's athletic director opening in 2012 when Missouri Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin was president at that school.

The school set a news conference Tuesday to introduce Rhoades.

Rhoades has been at Houston since 2009, overseeing 17 varsity sports, 10 of which participated in postseason competition in 2013-14. Prior to that he was athletic director at Akron.

During Rhoades' tenure, Houston raised nearly $100 million and built $160 million worth of new facilities, including a new on-campus football stadium and a men's and women's basketball development center, Missouri said. Rhoades also negotiated a new multimedia rights deal for the athletics program and naming rights deals.

"I am delighted to welcome a leader with a track record of enhancing the student-athlete experience and a proven record in fundraising and facility development," Loftin said in a statement. "We found the right fit at the right time to take Mizzou athletics to even greater heights."

Houston played football bowl games four of the last six seasons and was 8-5 last year, beating Pittsburgh in the Armed Forces Bowl.

"The University of Missouri is a world-class institution, and I am honored to serve as its next director of athletics," Rhoades said in a statement.

Under the 56-year-old Alden, Missouri's annual athletics budget has grown from $13.7 million to $85 million and has benefited from $265 million in private donations that have helped fund $233.2 million in facilities upgrades, according to the school.

But the school has come under fire for off-field issues. An independent report said Missouri failed to follow parts of the federal Title IX law that governs sexual harassment on campus when handling the case of a former swimmer's suicide. Missouri changed its Title IX policies after the report.

In 1999, Alden hired Quin Snyder over Bill Self as head basketball coach to replace Norm Stewart. During Snyder's tenure, Missouri incurred NCAA sanctions.

Alden's big hire was football coach Gary Pinkel in 2000. Missouri is coming off consecutive SEC Eastern Division championships.