First floated by independent columnist John Canzano yesterday afternoon, and then corroborated by a report from OregonLive.com’s James Crepea yesterday evening, Oregon State will soon have a new athletic director.Scott Barnes, who has led the school’s athletic department since 2017, will retire at the end of August.
One timeless truism of storytelling is that there are at least two sides to every story. Barnes’ tenure in Corvallis is a textbook example. On one hand, he hired Jonathan Smith, who rescued the Beavers’ football program from Gary Andersen. On the other hand, Barnes oversaw Andersen’s final year in Corvallis – with coaches pointing fingers – and later hired Smith’s successor Trent Bray, who led the football team to it’s lowest point since 1991.
Barnes’ later years at Oregon State featured a two-year battle for survival outside of power conference athletics. Oregon State football and baseball played independent schedules, while Oregon State men’s & women’s basketball, men’s & women’s soccer, and softball played as affiliate members in the West Coast Conference. Last October, Barnes assisted Pac-12 Conference leadership in adding five new members from the Mountain West Conference, and the conference announced it would resume play in 2026. Buttressing OregonLive.com’s reporting, Barnes succinctly explained that his motivation for retirement aligned with the school’s transition.“I think it’s time to transition to a new role and have a new leader come in and take it to the next level.”…