COLUMBUS, Ohio – Youngstown State University’s board of Trustees Friday morning voted unanimously to offer the job of president to former YSU and Buckeye head football coach Jim Tressel.
“After fully examining each and every candidate and reviewing the input from hundreds of individuals across the campus and the community, the Board of Trustees believes Mr. Tressel is the right individual at the right time to lead Youngstown State University,” board Chair Sudershan Garg said in a statement posted on the university’s website.
The trustees authorized and Garg vice chair John Jakubek to negotiate terms of a contract with Tressel and Garg emphasized that the appointment is not final until the terms are reached.
Tressel had been a finalist for the president’s jobs at Yongtown and the University of Akron, where he had been serving as an administrator after being forced out at Ohio State amid a scandal in which players sold memorabilia for cash and tattoos.
As head football coach at Youngstown State from 1986 to 2000, Tressel’s teams won four Division I-AA national championships. He also served as executive director of athletics from 1994 to 2000.
Akron’s trustees picked University of Toledo provost Scott Scarborough over Tressel yesterday.