SLU AD accepts the No. 2 post at Maryland

~ The athletic director had recently been bypassed in coaching decisions involving the men's basketball program.

ST. LOUIS -- Saint Louis University athletic director Cheryl Levick, who was stripped of two key decisions in its basketball program, has accepted the No. 2 post at the University of Maryland.

Levick has been hired to be chief of staff for Maryland's athletic director Debbie Yow, who was the athletic director at Saint Louis before taking the job in College Park, Yow said.

Levick will run internal operations at Maryland, which has a $55 million budget and 27 intercollegiate sports. The school has won 15 national championships over the last 13 years.

"Cheryl has the reputation of being one of the best collegiate administrators in the country," Yow said. "We're so delighted she'll be joining us."

Her future at Saint Louis had been in doubt ever since basketball coach Brad Soderberg was fired in April by university president Rev. Lawrence Biondi over her objections.

Biondi also did much of the negotiating with Soderberg's successor, Rick Majerus, casting her authority in the department into question.

Calls to Saint Louis University seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Before arriving at Saint Louis in June 2004, Levick spent four years as director of athletics at Santa Clara University.

Prior to Santa Clara, she spent 12 years at Stanford overseeing the athletic department's internal operations.

Levick, a St. Louis native, is a 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri and holds a master's degree in athletic administration from Indiana University.

Yow said Levick's name came up in a conversation with Dutch Baughmann, executive director of the Division 1-A Athletic Directors Association.

"I said I was looking for someone who was the best of the best in terms of initiative, energy level and smarts," Yow said.

"He said, 'If I were you, I'd look at Cheryl Levick.' I knew of her reputation. She'll be a terrific fit for us."

Among Levick's accomplishments at Saint Louis was spearheading the fundraising for the on-campus Chaifetz Arena project.