Steve Bilsky will take over as athletic director at Penn on July 1, and he may start attacking the status quo the same day.
At a Palestra news conference yesterday at which his hiring was announced, the George Washington University athletic director made it clear that he didn't want Penn to be an ivory tower school in an ivory tower league, out of touch with a changing college sports climate on issues such as gender equity, cost containment and the future structure of the NCAA.
"Rather than be in the background," Bilsky said, "we should be leaders."
Bilsky, 44, also questioned age-old practices within the Ivy League. He said it makes little sense that Ivy League football teams are forbidden from competing in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
Moreover, he said, the league should join virtually every other one in Division I and allow spring football practice, because Ivy Leaguers could handle it better than most of the others.
"These are the brightest kids in the country," he said.
Bilsky has been away from Penn for more than a decade, but the 1971 Wharton School graduate does have an insider's perspective. He was a three-year starter for some great Quakers basketball teams, and before going to George Washington, he was an assistant athletic director at Penn.
Bilsky said he intended to be a strong proponent of gender equity and of improving Penn's decaying athletic facilities. He said Penn needed a new multi-sport recreational facility near the Palestra and Franklin Field.
Bilsky didn't say his job would be easy.
"You have all these things that are colliding, principles and laws," he said. "I'm not sure how you reconcile 30 sports and thousands of athletes and cost containment and gender equity and upgrading facilities. The only way is to raise more funds."
Which Penn will have to do just to pay Bilsky's salary. An administrator at Penn said Bilsky had agreed to a seven-year contract worth about $150,000 a year, plus perks that include a car and a country club membership.
"It's about what you'd expect for a first-rate A.D., outside of the Dean Smith schools," the administrator said.
In addition to being athletic director, Bilsky will have the title of assistant provost. At George Washington, he received the title of assistant vice president in January.
He said the imminent departure of Temple, Rutgers and West Virginia from the Atlantic Ten Conference, of which George Washington is a member, had played only a small part in his decision to go to Penn.
