South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman appears to be out the door but university president Harris Pastides hasn’t conceded that to be true just yet. Speaking after Friday afternoon’s Board of Trustees meeting, Pastides said that he’s heard the rumors, but he’s yet to hear that Hyman is departing from the current athletic director, who will be seven years at his current post on Sunday.
Q&A with Pastides
Is there an official word?
No, there is not. I have no comment on that at this point. He has not told me anything.
Do you have a plan to meet with him today?
He’s asked to meet with me, yes. But I don’t know what that is to tell me.
Did he address this body (the Board of Trustees) today?
He did not, only relative to the coaches contracts that you heard about. He did not even address it, he was just here for that. He did not address the body … I don’t know. I really don’t know. Rumors are flying. It wouldn’t be fair to Eric for me to assume anything. All I know is he’s been a great athletic director. If he decided to stay, we’d be ecstatic. I need to give him the opportunity to come talk to me.
Has the university made a financial offer to him?
He’s never engaged me in any discussion about that. We’ll have more to tell you later today.
Just to be clear, Eric hasn’t come to talk to you about A&M and you haven’t asked him anything about it?
He has not come to tell me. Of course, I knew he was in conversation. Eric and I are very, very close. I would be delighted if he remained athletic director at Carolina. If he felt he needed to move on, we would have a good, firm handshake about that and wish him well. We’ll know later today, I believe.
Would the university be prepared to offer him some sort of new contract to stay?
I don’t think that’s how things work. If he suggested that was necessary, we would talk about it. I think the ball is in his court on that matter.
- John Whittle
- South Carolina Insider - TheBigSpur