SIU athletic director accepts job at Colorado St.

~ The Salukis' AD was credited with helping to resurrect the football program.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Southern Illinois athletic director Paul Kowalczyk was named to the same job at Colorado State on Tuesday.

Kowalczyk replaces Mark Driscoll, who resigned last month after 2 1/2 years to return to the banking business.

He will be paid $225,000 a year under a five-year contract, school officials said.

Since being tapped as athletics director at Southern Illinois in Carbondale in April 2000, Kowalczyk has been credited with helping rebuild the school's football program.

In 2001, he hired Jerry Kill, who coached a Salukis program that mustered just two winning seasons in the previous 17 but then last year won its third consecutive Gateway Conference title.

Southern Illinois competes in the Division I Missouri Valley Conference in all sports except football, where it competes in the Division I-AA Gateway Conference.

Before going to Southern Illinois, which has an annual athletics budget of $6.5 million, Kowalczyk was an associate athletics director at Northwestern and worked at Kansas State, Portland State, Youngstown State and Kent State.

Colorado State competes in the Division I Mountain West Conference in all sports. Its annual athletics budget is $13 million.

"Obviously, with the success of basketball and football, his imprint is apparent. But he's also done a lot with the non-revenue sports and has helped bring the budget under control," said Dan Callahan, the Salukis' baseball coach. "Finding the right leader is imperative right now."