Mullens Named To USOC Council

Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens has been named to a United States Olympic Committee advisory council tasked with strengthening collegiate sports programs that feed Team USA's rosters.

Mullens and the rest of the 11-member Collegiate Advisory Council convened for the first time last week in Colorado Springs. The UO athletic director also is in his second year of a three-year appointment to the College Football Playoff selection committee.

The USOC's Collegiate Advisory Council is chaired by Duke athletic director Kevin White, and also includes Stanford AD Bernard Muir as well as athletic directors from Texas, Alabama, Ohio State and Florida. It was formed with the intention of "bridging the gap between high-contributing collegiate stakeholders and the Olympic movement," according to an announcement Thursday.

"We understand how unique and vitally important our American collegiate athletics system is to both higher education and the Olympic movement, which is why increased collaboration is needed to sustain and elevate this system together," USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said. "We are eager to map a course to work directly with collegiate leaders to support elite student-athlete opportunities on campus and within our national teams."

According to the USOC announcement of the council's formation, the group is comprised of "collegiate administrators who have personally advocated for broad-based Olympic sport programming at the collegiate level and represent institutions that have historically contributed to Team USA's success at the Olympic Games.

Under Mullens' leadership, the Ducks have parlayed recent success in sports such as track and field, basketball, golf and tennis to back-to-back top-10 finishes in the collegiate Director's Cup standings. Oregon has improved in each of the last three years under Mullens, from 15th in 2013-14 to 13th in 2014-15, to 10th in 2015-16, and a school-record ninth in 2016-17.

"It is an honor to have the opportunity to contribute to a group with an important mission of building a stronger relationship between college athletics and the Olympic movement in our country," Mullens said. "We are proud of the broad-based excellence that all of our University of Oregon student-athletes have accomplished, and we place a high priority on competing for championships throughout our athletic program, including the standard of excellence in our Olympic sports. Oregon student-athletes continue to make a strong impact on U.S. Olympic teams, and I look forward to seeing how our group can enhance the future successes of our American Olympic movement that fosters such great pride in all of us."

This past school year, the women's track and field program swept the Triple Crown of NCAA titles. Men's basketball reached the Final Four, women's basketball advanced to the Elite Eight and softball participated in the Women's College World Series. Men's golf finished as NCAA runner-up, and both tennis programs reached the NCAA Tournament, as did volleyball.

According to the USOC, nearly 80 percent of 2016 U.S. Olympians — and 85 percent of American medalists — had collegiate ties. Oregon track and field alumni won gold medals in the men's 1,500 (Matthew Centrowitz), decathlon (Ashton Eaton), women's 4x100 relay (English Gardner) and women's 4x400 relay (Phyllis Francis), and Galen Rupp took bronze in the men's marathon. Brianne Theisen-Eaton won bronze for Canada in the heptathlon.

University of Oregon Athletics

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