The UTEP Director of Athletics search just got a little more interesting after a source told 600 ESPN El Paso last night that Dr. Lisa Campos had withdrawn her name from consideration for the position. Campos, the current Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at Northern Arizona University, was scheduled to interview on campus today. However, 600 ESPN El Paso reported that she was also a finalist for the AD position at University of Texas at San Antonio and reportedly had interviewed in San Antonio on Tuesday.

United Way Lunch
Jake Bacon/Arizona Daily Sun
loading...

With Campos out of the running, the UTEP Director of Athletics position is down to a pair of finalists. Jim Senter, the Director of Athletics at The Citadel, was on the UTEP campus Monday and interviewed for the job that afternoon. Chris Park, the current Senior Associate Athletic Director for Development and External Operations at UTEP interviewed yesterday afternoon. Park has the support of both outgoing UTEP Director of Athletics Bob Stull as well as men's basketball head coach Tim Floyd.

With the two finalists already having interviewed, expect UTEP to have their AD position filled by the end of this week or the first of next week. At that point, the university can focus all of their attention on the head coaching position for football. Mike Price, who took over the Miners head coaching job on an interim basis for Sean Kugler, will coach the team through next's week's regular season finale against UAB.

Although UTEP did not use a national search firm for their Director of Athletics vacancy, a source indicated to 600 ESPN El Paso that the school did hire Eastman and Beaudine to assist with their search for a football head coach. The company is based out of Plano, Texas and former C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said "Eastman & Beaudine has distinguished themselves as the premier executive search firm. I don’t know of another group that can provide the same range of services with the highest level of quality."

It is interesting that UTEP did not hire a search firm to assist with their AD position but did use one for their football head coaching job. That leads me to believe that Dr. Campos was the favorite for the position from time Bob Stull announced his retirement. Assuming she would take over the athletic department, she would immediately have a list of finalists to interview for UTEP's new football head coach. Instead, school president Dr. Diana Natalicio and Executive Vice President Richard Adauto must decide if they want to stay in house and promote Park or bring in someone with no ties to the school or Stull in Senter.

More From 600 ESPN El Paso