Brady Rourke Promoted To Associate Director

Brady Rourke, the former assistant director of "making sure Syracuse University student athletes stay academically eligible and the basketball team's APR doesn't dip to UConn-Postseason-Ineligible status," was official promoted to, "man completely in charge of making sure student athletes stay academically eligible and the Syracuse basketball team's APR doesn't dip to And-You-Are-Getting-Fired-And-You-Are-Getting-Fired status."

Rourke, who's new title is actually Associate Director of the Stevenson Academic Center for Student-Athlete Development, brings seven years of experience to the position, including a stint at Penn State. Rourke was hired as SU's assistant director in March.

(Basically, if another Syracuse basketball player becomes academically ineligible, he's the guy trolls will blame.)

This seems to be, hopefully, a move in the right direction for SU athletics to get a handle on what has become a public relations nightmare for the department. As we all know, over the course of two seasons, two Syracuse basketball players -- Fab Melo and James Southerland -- became academically ineligible in the middle of spectacular years.

Luckily, Southerland's case was resolved and he was able to help spark a Final Four run. Melo's story was a bit different, as he was unable to return -- well he did but he then didn't -- and the Orange fell a game short of making the Final Four and possibly losing out on a second National Championship.

Those academic issues, mixed with the Bernie Fine saga, raised some red flags with the NCAA, which are now allegedly looking into more and more violations -- academic or other.

Best of luck to Rourke in this new role.