Hawaii picks 2 finalists for AD job

If Ohio State senior associate athletics director Ben Jay is named the University of Hawaii’s next athletic director, he’ll go from managing a $131.8 million annual budget for 36 sports to one of about $30 million for 21 teams.

He’ll go from an athletic program that had an $8.2 million surplus to one running an accumulated net deficit of more than $11 million.

Jay, who has had oversight of finance and operations at Ohio State since 2006, is said to be the leading candidate to fill the permanent AD position at UH, according to some people who have met him at UH.

But there was no indication yet whether UH-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple, who is overseeing the hiring process, will pick Jay or the other finalist, University of California-Berkeley deputy director of athletics Solomon "Solly" Fulp. Or, if UH’s offer will entice either of them.

Both have been in town this week and UH had listed today as the deadline for naming a new athletic director. A spokeswoman for the Manoa Chancellor’s office declined to say whether an announcement would come today.

Jay told the Star-Advertiser in an email, "I want to respect the UH process until its conclusion, so I won’t comment until the right time."

Fulp did not return phone messages left for him.

UH has said the salary for the new AD will be negotiable. Former athletic director Jim Donovan’s salary was listed at $240,000 before a mandatory 5 percent pay cut. That ranked him ninth among 11 ADs in base salary from the current or incoming Mountain West Conference members in 2011, according to a USA Today study.

The conference leaders were New Mexico’s Paul Krebs ($408,391) and Nevada-Las Vegas’ Jim Livengood ($350,000), according to the survey.

Jay served as Pac-10 associate commissioner for business and finance for more than 12 years before returning to Ohio State. Both he and his wife, Ling, are Ohio State graduates.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in athletic administration from Ohio State, Jay was the general manager of a minor league baseball team and director of operations for the Cleveland Indians. He also was assistant athletic director at Fairfield University.

At Cal, where he was named chief operating officer in 2011, Fulp oversees a $68 million, 27-sport athletic program.

Fulp is a University of Oregon graduate and has a master’s degree from Sacramento State where, between 1996 and 2003, he was an assistant and associate athletic director. Fulp was an assistant AD for corporate development at Cal from 2003 to ’05 and later served as vice president and general manager for the Cal ISP Sports Network from 2005 to ’08

UH said the 11-member search advisory committee received more than 150 applications, including an additional 50-plus contacts that the Atlanta-based search firm made with prospective candidates. The search firm conducted talks with some candidates who applied and with others who declined to submit applications, UH said.