The University announced Friday that interim Men’s Athletics Director Tom Moe is the only finalist for the permanent position after looking at more than 50 candidates.
Moe, a former managing partner in the Minneapolis law firm Dorsey & Whitney, has said he will accept the job if the University offers him the position.
Moe has been the acting director since Mark Dienhart resigned last December amid the men’s basketball scandal. He will sit through a formal interview with University President Mark Yudof and Tonya Moten Brown, vice president for administration, this week. An official decision will be announced by Nov. 3.
“In the final analysis, the (search) committee agreed that Tom Moe is the strongest candidate,” said Steve Yussen, College of Education and Human Development dean and head of the search committee. “Tom is an exceptional leader, and he has done an outstanding job as interim director.”
If chosen, Moe said he would accept the position with a strong sense of desire.
“I am delighted,” he said. “I’ve had an incredible opportunity to work with the outstanding coaches, student athletes and staff in men’s athletics over the past 10 months and look forward to sharing my vision for the department with them and the broader University community.”
Moe graduated from the University in 1960 and earned his law degree in 1963. During that time, he was a six-time Gopher letter-winner in baseball and football, as well as being named the football team’s most valuable player in 1959.
“Because of the great education I received at the University, I took the interim athletics director position out of a sense of duty,” he said.
In addition to the formal interview with Yudof and Moten Brown, an open forum for the public with Moe will be held Tuesday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Room 25 of the Law School.
The University’s announcement came just days after the NCAA released its final report on the men’s basketball academic fraud. Since the findings of a University sanctioned report were made public last November, the men’s athletic department and basketball program have been substantially restructured.

Erin Ghere welcomes comments at [email protected]