Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack is retiring, as he’s planning to leave the school on July 1.
He exits the job after a decade in charge, leaving Syracuse without an athletic director or a chancellor and with the basketball program struggling in the post-Jim Boeheim era.
Wildhack came to Syracuse in 2016 after a long tenure as an ESPN executive in the wake of Mark Coyle’s sudden departure for Minnesota after less than a year on the job.
Wildhack’s time at the school has been mixed, as the football program proved inconsistent and the basketball program fumbled the exit of Hall of Fame coach Boeheim and has since faded from national relevancy. Syracuse hasn’t been at the forefront of the changing landscape of college sports, which has left it a step behind on the field.
Wildhack’s achievements at Syracuse included an overhaul and modernization of the JMA Wireless Dome and an NCAA men’s soccer national title in 2022.
Wildhack’s retirement and the departure of chancellor Kent Syverud for Michigan leaves Syracuse’s athletic department at an interesting crossroads as it faces multiple critical concurrent decisions.
Basketball coach Adrian Autry is 47-42 through his three seasons as Boeheim’s replacement, with a 22-29 record in ACC play and no NCAA bids. The question looming over Syracuse’s search will be whether they can bring in someone in time to come in and make a decision on Autry’s future with nearly a month remaining in the season.
Wildhack hired Fran Brown in football and promoted Autry to replace Boeheim, an awkward transition after Boeheim had missed the NCAA tournament in his final two seasons. Brown’s hire yielded a 10-win season in 2024 but a 2025 season that saw eight straight losses after an injury to quarterback Steve Angelli in a win at Clemson.
As for the basketball program, they reached the NCAA tournament three times in Wildhack’s decade in charge. Per ESPN Research, Syracuse basketball won 55.8% of its games during his tenure and just 48.6% of games in conference.
The prior 10 years before Wildhack, Syracuse won 73.7% of its basketball games and won 65.7% of conference games, an era that spanned both the ACC and Big East.
Syracuse hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament in basketball since 2021 and hasn’t had a first-round pick since 2017 (Tyler Lydon) and a draft pick since 2020 (Elijah Hughes). Lydon’s selection in 2017 marked Syracuse’s sixth straight season with a first-round NBA draft pick.
Wildhack spent more than three decades at ESPN, rising to the title of executive vice president for programming and production. At ESPN, he produced the network’s first live college football game in 1984 and first NFL game in 1987.
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