SIU introduces former Mizzou administrator as AD

~ Moccia served as senior associate athletic director at Missouri.

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University named Mario L. Moccia, senior associate athletics director at University of Missouri, on Friday as its new athletic director.

Moccia, 38, replaces Paul Kowalczyk, who left Southern Illinois in April to become athletic director at Colorado State.

SIU chancellor Walter Wendler said Moccia was the unanimous choice of a nine-member search committee, chosen from a pool of more than 40 applicants. Moccia, who had been at Missouri since December 1998, is scheduled to start his new job Aug. 1.

A graduate of New Mexico State, Moccia was the Most Valuable Player of the Aggies baseball team in 1988-89. As a senior, he was a preseason All-America and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers.

He spent two years playing professional baseball before launching his sports administration career.

Kowalczyk was credited with helping rebuild the Salukis' football program. Last season, the team won its third Division I-AA Gateway Conference title in Kowalczyk's six years in Carbondale. In all other sports, Southern Illinois competes in the Division I Missouri Valley Conference.