Doug Gottlieb endorses Erika Hanson Barnes for Arizona athletic director

On Monday, the Arizona Wildcats announced that former softball player Erika Hanson Barnes would become the interim athletic director as a national search gets underway.

She has her first endorsement from a national personality, though Doug Gottlieb spelled her name wrong while doing it.

While it’s true that Barnes likely has the connections, there are other people out there that also have those connections, as well as the experience of being a college athletic director. The main person that comes to mind is USF’s Mark Harlan, who is an Arizona grad and has done good things at USF.

Gottlieb played basketball at Oklahoma State while Barnes was playing softball at Arizona. Other than that, there’s no real connection between the two, so this is an interesting take by the college basketball analyst / national radio personality.

Barnes said herself on Monday that she was unsure if she would pursue this job as a long-term thing beyond the interim tag.