University of Wisconsin-Superior director of athletics Nick Bursik is one of four finalists for the vacant intercollegiate athletic director position at the University of Alaska Fairbanks .
Bursik will interview with the Nanooks athletic department on Friday and take part in face-to-face meetings and interviews on the UAF campus. He is the last of the four finalists to interview on campus.
Bursik has been the UWS athletic director since August 2015. Before that he was the Yellowjackets baseball coach from 2012-15 and served as interim athletic director during that final season. He also served as interim softball coach from November 2018 through the 2020 season. He was named Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Softball Coach of the Year in 2019.
Bursik is a UW-Superior graduate and native of Stillwater, Minnesota, who lives in Hermantown with his wife and son. He pitched four seasons for the Yellowjackets in college and was an assistant baseball coach before becoming head coach. He earned a bachelor degree in business administration from UWS in 2012 while playing baseball and later added a Masters of Business Administration from St. Scholastica in 2018.
ADVERTISEMENT
The other three finalists for the job include Black Hills State University assistant director of athletics for internal operations and events Brock Anundson, former University of Memphis senior associate athletic director for external relations Steve Macy and University of Idaho senior associate athletic director Tim Mooney.
The Nanooks athletic department sponsors 10 sports that mostly compete at the NCAA Division II level. Nordic skiing and rifle are multidivisional sports and the men’s hockey program is set to begin competing as an independent at the NCAA Division I level in 2021-22 following the departure of seven schools from the men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association to reform the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
The university has not had a full-time athletic director since Sterling Steward Jr. stepped down in June 2019 after just eight months. Keith Champagne, the university’s vice chancellor for student affairs, took on the AD duties in a dual role until Feb. 1 of this year, when UAF School of Management faculty member Peggy Keiper was named the interim AD. Keiper was then replaced on March 5 by Steve Patin, the statewide University of Alaska system’s chief human resources director.
The school has been dealing with a number of NCAA investigations for rules violations dating back to 2007. Penalties announced in 2014 from the investigations banned the basketball and hockey programs from postseason play in 2014-15 while multiple sports were forced to forfeit wins.
The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reported in March the athletic department is once again being investigated by the NCAA for a rules violation the athletic department self reported on Jan. 26.
