Western Kentucky's Ross Bjork has agreed to become Mississippi's next athletic director, said a person familiar with the decision.
The person spoke to The Associated Press Wednesday on condition of anonymity because neither school had announced the hiring. The 39-year-old Bjork has been the athletic director at Western Kentucky since March 2010 and has also worked in the athletic departments at UCLA, Miami and Missouri.
The Dodge City, Kan., native will take over for Pete Boone, who has announced his retirement effective later this year after more than 13 years as Mississippi's AD.
One of Bjork's challenges will be helping rebuild Mississippi's football program. The Rebels finished 2-10 last season, 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference. Fourth-year football coach Houston Nutt was fired after the season and Hugh Freeze replaced him in December.
Bjork was the youngest athletics director in the Football Bowl Subdivision while at Western Kentucky and is considered a fast riser and major fundraiser. Before going to WKU, he spent the previous five years at UCLA, where he directed all fund raising activities.
He previously worked at Miami and Missouri after getting his start at Western Kentucky as an athletic development coordinator in 1996-97.
Now he'll be charged with helping the Rebels compete in the loaded SEC. Ole Miss has an annual athletic budget of about $50 million, which is dwarfed by several other SEC powerhouses.
Bjork made decisive moves with coaches at Western Kentucky, despite his relatively short tenure.
After football coach Willie Taggart's 7-5 season this year, Bjork renegotiated his deal and more than doubled the head coach's base salary to $475,000.
He fired men's basketball coach Ken McDonald midseason after a 5-11 start and replaced him with Ray Harper, who later became the permanent coach and one of the highest-paid coaches in the conference with a base salary of $375,000.
The Hilltoppers went on to make a run to the NCAA tournament, winning four games in four days to earn the automatic qualifier out of the Sun Belt.
"It's been a great run," Bjork said just before the start of the game that the Hilltoppers lost to Kentucky 81-66. "It's great exposure for our university, really all of our teams."
Bjork also fired women's basketball coach Mary Taylor Cowles after this season and had been active in determining her replacement until this past week. That job is expected to start between $150,000 and $175,000.
