Southeast athletic director Mark Alnutt resigning to take job at Memphis

Southeast Missouri State director of athletics Mark Alnutt wasn't seeking a new job when he was contacted by a search firm June 10.

But after a three-year stint with the Redhawks that began in May 2012, Alnutt has accepted the deputy director of athletics job at the University of Memphis and has resigned, effective July 31, from Southeast.

Brady Barke, senior associate to the Southeast president, will serve as interim athletics director. New university president Dr. Carlos Vargas-Aburto did not have an estimated deadline for a new hire to replace Alnutt.

"For me, I thought it was a great fit, first and foremost with my skill set, the opportunity that I've had to learn and lead here, which I thought that was very important," Alnutt said.

He visited the Tigers' campus as one of four finalists last week and met with University of Memphis president M. David Rudd and athletic director Tom Bowen, among others, before being offered the job.

"When I had the opportunity to meet with Tom Bowen and the rest of his search committee, again it was just a great discussion," Alnutt said. "For me, looking at what they're trying to do is they're trying to build up Memphis more so than what it is. Right now, they're a member of the American Conference, obviously at the [Football Bowl Subdivision] level. They're not a Power 5 school, but they're what's called the Group 5, and when you hear schools that potentially could be in the Power 5, Memphis is one of the schools that's mentioned along with Cincinnati, Boise State, BYU, those types of schools."

Alnutt will replace Wren Baker, who left Memphis on May 20 for a similar position at Alnutt's alma mater, the University of Missouri.

Alnutt's contract with Southeast stated if he leaves the university for another job and announced his departure before June 30, he would owe the university twice his annual base salary of $135,000.

By leaving the university before June 30, 2017, Alnutt owed an amount equivalent to his base salary, which he said Memphis was willing to pay to hire him.

"When they presented the offer letter to me, and I had a chance to have Tom walk me through it before it was sent to me, that was one of the things that really impressed me in terms of how committed they are and how they want to make this investment in me," Alnutt said. "I feel now I have the opportunity to stay there for however long and be part of something that's going to continue to grow and build."

Alnutt, a 1995 graduate of Missouri and former Tigers football player, worked in Mizzou's athletic department for 14 years and was the senior associate athletics director before his first director of athletics job at Southeast.

During his three years in charge of Southeast's athletic department, the Redhawks won nine Ohio Valley Conference championships and completed 4,100 hours of community service during the last year, a department record. Southeast athletics compiled a cumulative grade-point average of 3.15 this year.

"You guys always hear me say academic excellence, social development and competitive success are the core values of putting together a first-class collegiate experience, and I'm hopeful that we were able to do that," Alnutt said. "Obviously there's more work to be done, but when you look at academically being in the position to be strong academically from a GPA standpoint is something that I'm definitely proud of the job that our kids have done. When you look at community service, and documented community service, to claim over 4,000 hours of community service from our student-athletes, I mean, that's phenomenal. Giving back to the community that's something that when I first got here and talked in the community those were the things that we weren't doing, so to be able to expand on that and having our kids involved in the community, that's a big thing.

"When you look at, obviously, the championships and the last two years finishing third in the Commissioner's Cup -- we fell back this year, which I'm a competitive person and disappointed in, but when all things are said and done and you look at the schools that we're competing against and you look at our budgets that we have as compared to school's that we're competing against, I felt that we're a bunch of folks that roll up our sleeves and get the job done, so I'm definitely proud of that," Alnutt added.