University of Missouri Athletics Director Mike Alden will be running sports operations at MU for at least the next five years.
The Missourinet has confirmed the University’s Board of Curators has voted to extend Alden’s contract through 2012.
Asked to confirm the Alden extension, MU Chancellor Brady Deaton told the Missourinet that he and members of the Board of Curators are pleased with the work Alden is doing and wanted to keep Alden in Columbia.
"That was a decision we made in reviewing Mike Alden’s record with athletics," said Deaton on the football field in Columbia following Missouri’s 38-17 win over Illinois State.
"He’s done a great job," added Deaton. "He’s very highly respected, nationally, in the Big 12, and NCAA. We felt this added a sense of stability to our program at a time when that’s very critical in what we’re doing here."
Alden, a Chicago native, began his administrative career in 1985 at Arizona State University, where he served as a special assistant to the director of athletics. In 1996, he became Director of Athletics at Southwest Texas – now Texas State University.
Alden has been Athletics Director at MU since 1998, when he took over from Joe Castiglione, who is now with the University of Oklahoma.
Download/Listen: Steve Walsh interviews MU Chancellor Brady Deaton (:55 MP3)