Marshall announced Monday afternoon that the university won’t be renewing athletic director Christian Spears’ contract when it expires in March of 2026, and will be in the market for another leader of the athletics department. Spears will remain the athletic director until the school finds a successor, whether that takes as little as a month or until 2026.

Spears has been the AD since 2022, after his position at Pitt as the deputy athletic director, and signed a contract through 2026 with the Thundering Herd. Spears was brought on to guide the move of Marshall into its new conference, the Sun Belt, from Conference USA.

Spears led the initiative to build a new ballpark that had been in talks but never started. With the help of donors, Jack Cook Field ballpark opened in March 2024. Facility upgrades were an emphasis under Spears, adding new video boards for football, baseball, softball and soccer. He also helped get a new football field, a new basketball court, a new Taraflex court for women’s volleyball, new lights for softball, and the complete renovation of the Gullickson Hall Gymnasium.

Performance-wise, the athletic program excelled. Marshall won the Sun Belt in football and was bowl-eligible every year. He hired women’s basketball coach Kim Caldwell, who led her team to the NCAA Tournament in Year 1 and won Sun Belt Coach of the Year. Marshall men’s soccer also went to the College Cup this year, eventually losing to Vermont.

In the fall Learfield Directors’ Cup, which ranks all Division I athletic departments, Marshall ranked 72nd in the nation and first in the Sun Belt. After the winter sports concluded, Marshall ranked 123rd in the rankings.

The issue for Spears was retaining coaches. Success has been was closely followed by a coaching departure. Caldwell, after leading her squad to the postseason, was picked up by Tennessee to be the Lady Vols’ next coach.

The same situation happened with football. Head coach Charles Huff led the Herd to a 10-3 season, and Spears couldn’t work out a deal to keep him, losing him to Southern Mississippi. Huff had so many players transfer with him that Marshall took a $100,000 fine to opt out of the bowl game because they couldn’t field a competitive roster.

There could be other factors leading to Spears’ departure behind the scenes, but the glaring issue was what happened with Huff.

Marshall president Brad Smith will have some time to find a replacement because it’s not urgent. Spears has already hired former NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson to replace Huff. Spears will remain the AD until Marshall finds someone, too, so there’s no need to rush.

In 2021, Smith and then President Jerome A. Gilbert formed a nine-person search committee to find Spears, which most likely will be done again in this search.

One of the options to replace Spears could be reuniting with Jeff O’Malley, who is now the AD at Lamar. He was the associate athletic director at Marshall for 20 years. O’Malley was a finalist for the last time there was a vacancy as Marshall’s AD.

Other candidates, who were also finalists a couple of years ago, were now Gardner-Webb AD Andrew Goodrich and Washington State’s deputy AD Chris Park. They could also be options.