Ian McCaw is a Canadian-American college athletics administrator. He has served as the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

Liberty University Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...

since 2016, when he resigned amid

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

from Baylor University.

Biography

Born in Canada, McCaw graduated from

Laurentian University Laurentian University (), officially Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized Bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Laurentian offers a variety of undergr ...

in 1985. After working for the front office of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its 25-year existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1 ...

, he entered college athletics administration. He served as athletic director at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

from 1997 to 2002 and at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

from 2002 to 2003. In 2003, McCaw was named athletic director at

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

. Under McCaw's direction, Baylor saw great growth and success as an athletic department, winning four team national championships and 56

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

championships. McCaw's hiring of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

coach

Art Briles Arthur Ray Briles (born December 3, 1955) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach for the Guelfi Firenze in the Italian Football League. Briles was the head coach of the Houston Cougars from 2002 to 2007 and the Baylor B ...

in 2007, propelled the Bears football team to its greatest successes in program history, including

Robert Griffin III Robert Lee Griffin III (born February 12, 1990), nicknamed RGIII or RG3, is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, most notably with the Washington Redskins. He ...

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...

-winning season in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, back-to-back 11–2 records and Big 12 conference titles in the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and 2014 seasons, and appearances in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl and 2015 Cotton Bowl. McCaw was named the ''

Waco Tribune-Herald The ''Waco Tribune-Herald'' is an American daily newspaper serving Waco, Texas, and vicinity. Background The newspaper has its roots in five predecessors, beginning with the ''Waco Evening Telephone'' in 1892. The ''Tribune-Herald'' took its curr ...

'' Sportsman of the Year in 2010, NACDA West Region Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year in 2012, and the Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year in 2014. In 2015, amid the Baylor University sexual assault scandal, the university hired law firm

Pepper Hamilton Troutman Pepper Locke LLP is an international law firm with more than 1,600 attorneys located in 32 U.S. cities and London. The firm was formed on January 1, 2025, as a merger of Troutman Pepper and Locke Lord. Background Before the merger ...

to investigate the university's handling of numerous sexual and non-sexual assaults by Baylor students and student-athletes. On May 26, 2016, the university announced that the firm's investigation had concluded that the football program specifically and McCaw's athletics department leaders generally failed to identify and respond to a pattern of sexual violence by a football player and to a report of dating violence. Investigators also concluded that the football program and athletics department leaders failed to take appropriate action in response to reports of a sexual assault involving multiple football players. The university announced that it had "sanctioned" McCaw and placed him on probation. He resigned his position at Baylor on May 30, 2016. McCaw was named athletic director at

on November 28, 2016.

References

External links

Liberty profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaw, Ian Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Baylor Bears athletic directors Hartford Whalers executives Laurentian University alumni Liberty Flames and Lady Flames athletic directors Northeastern Huskies athletic directors Tulane Green Wave athletic directors UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen athletic directors