How far down the road has Southeast Missouri State traveled toward hiring an associate athletic director for external operations?

It depends whom you ask.

Athletic director Don Kaverman said last month and repeated Tuesday that Southeast has not begun the process of filling the newly created position, but university president Dr. Kenneth Dobbins confirmed Wednesday through a spokesman that the university spoke with two candidates this summer.

One of those candidates, John Shafer, this week said he did take a "fact-finding visit" to Cape Girardeau this summer to explore the opportunity.

"I went up there and looked at it, and it just wasn't something at this time of my life that I wanted to do," said Shafer, 61, who is semi-retired after closing his 32-year career in intercollegiate athletics as the AD at Eastern Kentucky in 2004. "I enjoyed reacquainting with Dr. Dobbins because I was at Eastern for a time, and I have a lot of respect for him."

Dobbins said recently the university was preparing to advertise the position, which was recommended in the Carr Sports Associates review of the program earlier this year. Under the proposal, presented to the university's board of regents in May, the associate AD for external operations oversees marketing, media relations, ticket operations and fundraising and booster clubs.

The board approved adding the position and budgeted $85,000 per year with the idea the position would be self-sufficient through its fundraising efforts in three years.

Cindy Gannon has the title of associate AD for internal operations and senior women's administrator.

Kaverman, who is in his 10th year at Southeast and has a contract through June 30, 2009, said Tuesday, "We haven't started actively recruiting for that [external position]. Not to my knowledge."

Asked specifically about a summer interview involving Shafer, Kaverman said, "I don't know. I didn't invite John Shafer over here, so I wouldn't be the person to talk to about that."

Dobbins was unavailable for comment, but Diane Sides, assistant to the president, said two candidates were interviewed for the associate AD position on an interim basis and declined the position. No names were given.

Shafer's visit to Cape Girardeau, which he said was late July or early August, would have been around the time Southeast received word its men's basketball program was being investigated by the NCAA — on the heels of penalties handed down for the women's basketball program in June after a 29-month process — and shortly after Kaverman withdrew from consideration for an associate AD job at Ferris State, near where he grew up in Michigan.

"Listen, I've been around the block a few times, so nothing would shock me," said Shafer, who spent 18 years as an assistant to Vince Dooley at Georgia in addition to being an AD at Ole Miss and an associate AD at Vanderbilt. "It was absolutely just one of those things that I needed to stay in Auburn. There was nothing at Southeast Missouri that turned me off.

"I think, obviously, at that level, there are things that could be better. Resources are always limited. What you want is every student-athlete who comes in to achieve a level of success. And it's your job as an administrator to give them the resources to do that. You want them to compete for championships, you want them to graduate. At some schools, it's more limited than others, and there's a lot of finding ways to do it."

Shafer said he met mostly with Dobbins during the overnight trip, though he also toured the campus with Kaverman and ran into volleyball coach Renata Nowacki, who was a student-athlete at Ole Miss when Shafer was there.

"There was not a planned agenda," Shafer said. "I didn't go there assuming I would be offered a job or was seeking a job at the time. There was never a time when we talked in that vein.

"I thought it would be something I might be interested in so I looked into it. I have a lot of respect for Don, and I believe we could complement each other with our strength and weaknesses."

Jim Limbaugh, Southeast board of regents member and a member of the university's athletics subcommittee, said he was not sure how the search process was progressing, but he was not surprised Dobbins used his connections to contact potential candidates.

"Typically, one of the benefits we have because of Ken's tenure is he has a pretty wide-ranging network," Limbaugh said. "You can throw out some feelers to see what's out there, what the market looks like. I'm just going to assume Ken has put his feelers out, and to what extent he's involved Don Kaverman in that process, I don't know, frankly."

Limbaugh noted that the position, in Carr's recommended organizational chart, not only reports directly to Kaverman but is connected to the University Foundation and, by extension, the president's office.

Shafer said the person hired into the position will have the good fortune of working for two people for whom he has high regard.

"Dr. Dobbins is very much in tune with intercollegiate athletics and is an ally," Shafer said. "Presidents, if you don't have someone who cares about the program sitting at the top, you've got problems. And he's a guy who understands athletics and understands the importance of it and what it means to the alumni base.

"Don Kaverman is an old friend and we worked together in the OVC as part of the athletic directors committee. Let me just say this: I've been around the block, been to four SEC schools, and he's an outstanding administrator. He sincerely cares about the welfare of the student-athlete, and there's a lot to be said for that."