Marquette University names Bill Scholl as new Athletic Director

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Bill Scholl, director of intercollegiate athletics at Ball State University, will serve as Marquette University’s next vice president and director of athletics, President Michael R. Lovell announced on Tuesday, September 9th.

Scholl has more than two decades of athletics administration experience and oversaw 19 NCAA Division I athletic programs at Ball State. He will begin at Marquette mid-October.

Scholl, who will report directly to President Lovell, takes over an athletic department with new leaders directing its signature programs, men’s and women’s basketball. Steve Wojciechowski was named the head coach of the men’s basketball program on April 1, and Carolyn Kieger was named the head women’s basketball coach a month later. “Bill’s experience is the perfect complement to our young and energetic head coaches,” President Lovell said.

Past successes and service

Scholl has led the Ball State Cardinals since 2012, during which eight programs have reached the postseason and 13 teams placed either first or second in the Mid-American Conference. Ball State has boasted four All-Americans in each of his two years and the Cardinals placed 54 student-athletes on all-conference teams in 2013-14, a 14.9-percent increase over Scholl’s first year and a 54.3-percent increase over the year before his arrival.

In his time at Ball State, he also served as chairperson of the Mid-American Conference’s basketball issues working group and was a member of the conference’s finance committee. He oversaw a number of on-campus facility upgrades including the renovation of baseball and softball stadiums and the groundbreaking for a new football facility for team meetings and office space.

Under Scholl’s leadership at Ball State, student-athletes also saw success in the classroom, with 14 teams scoring better than the national Division I average in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Report baseline. The men’s basketball team climbed in its academic standing steadily, posting a 2013 score that is 20 points higher than the national average.

Prior to his term at Ball State, Scholl served 23 years at Notre Dame, where he finished as deputy athletics director. He was responsible for administration of men’s basketball, football, baseball and men’s soccer, as well as fundraising and donor relations, budgeting and growing external revenue. Scholl collaborated with the university’s advancement office to lead the athletics department in an $84 million athletics fundraising initiative for the Spirit of Notre Dame campaign.

Early in his career, Scholl held leadership positions in service-driven organizations. He was the former director of financial development for the 1987 International Summer Special Olympic Games. He served in the same position for one year at South Bend’s Logan Center, which offers services to persons with developmental disabilities. While working for Special Olympics, he raised in excess of $8 million for the 1987 games.

Scholl earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies in 1979 from Notre Dame. He and his wife, Julie, have three children: Michael (a 2009 Notre Dame graduate), Stefanie (a 2012 Ball State graduate) and Kelly (a 2014 Notre Dame graduate).