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Report: Mike Holder Could Retire, Like … Soon

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Bill Haisten came flying in off the top rope on Monday evening with a report in the Tulsa World that Mike Holder could retire … soon. Here’s Haisten.

For 51 years, Holder has been an everyday presence on the OSU campus. Will his remaining time in the athletic director’s position be measured in years or in months? Or in weeks?

Sources indicate that several influential university figures are advocates of change in the athletic director’s office. Advocates of Holder’s retirement.

It is believed that Oklahoma State is exploring the possibility of hiring an athletic director-in-waiting — someone who would agree to become Holder’s designated successor. It is not known what the transition timeline might look like, but informed OSU people are in agreement that something soon could happen. [Tulsa World]

So that’s a stunner. Holder is 68 but seems as spry as ever. The last few years have been mildly tumultuous, though. From the Mike Gundy contract messes to the Travis Ford debacle to this last week of coaching musical chairs, I guess it makes sense why “several influential university figures are advocates of change in the athletic director’s office.”

And when you pair this with the report earlier on Monday that Holder was sold on Doug Gottlieb as the head coach but others were not, a picture starts to come into focus that maybe Holder doesn’t wield as big a stick as he used to.

Has Holder been fronting for the AD position recently even as he slips into his post-career life? I don’t think that at all, but it does feel like maybe his hand was a little forced by others in power at OSU over this coaching decision. Again … maybe. I can corroborate that report about the Gottlieb hire, but that doesn’t mean it is 100 percent true.

The Boone Pickens issue is the one that intrigues me most. Haisten brought this up.

If Holder were nudged into retirement, how might it affect OSU’s relationship with Pickens? It’s a critical consideration for those at the top of the decision-making chain. [Tulsa World]

OSU knows where its bread is buttered. Non-Holder upper management and regents at Oklahoma State may be willful, but they aren’t dumb. So that’s going to be fascinating.

Holder has been a tremendous athletic director. I know that’s not what a lot of people want to hear this week, but it’s true. He has presided over the golden years of Oklahoma State athletics and laid a solid foundation for Oklahoma State to build on into the future.

He won’t be AD forever of course, and it sounds like his time may come sooner rather than later. It won’t get as much publicity as the basketball hire or whatever it is Gundy is doing this week for Animal Planet. But the transition from Holder to his successor will shape the way we think about and consume Oklahoma State sports for years and years.

I hope whoever it is moves the thing forward with as much force as Mike Holder has in his decade-long reign in Stillwater.

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