The events of the past week have turned this campus on its head. Athletic Director Bill Goldring’s status at Ashland University is in limbo, and rumors are rampant. 

Everyone has an opinion, yet seemingly no one has the facts.

Which is unfortunate for Goldring, who has been one of the biggest successes at Ashland over the past two decades. 

In his 16 years as the head of AU’s athletic department, Goldring has built one of the greatest NCAA Division II programs in the country. The numbers speak for themselves.

In both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years, the Eagles placed third in the Learfield Sports Directors Cup standings, which rank athletic programs on broad-based success. 

Over the last six years, AU is one of only three schools to rank in the top 10 of those standings each year.

In 2012-13, 16 athletic teams from the university competed in NCAA postseason play. The women’s basketball team won the first and only team national championship in school history, men’s track and field placed second in both the indoor and outdoor seasons and the Eagles won Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in football, women’s basketball, men’s outdoor track and field and baseball.

Also in 2012-13, 48 men and women who competed for the purple and gold were named All-Americans. Nine Eagles won individual national championships.

The 2013-14 academic year is Goldring’s 35th in college athletics administration. In his time at AU, he has made significant upgrades to athletic facilities – including the state-of-the-art Dwight Schar Athletic Complex that houses football, soccer and track and field. 

The Eagles also rank near the top of the nation each year in the classroom. In 2012-13, five student-athletes were named Capital One Academic All-Americans. Kari Pickens (Daugherty) was the Capital One Academic All-American in women’s basketball and in the women’s at-large voting.

In 2009-10, the AU men’s track and field team earned the honor of top Scholar-Athlete team as named by the Track and Field Coaches of America in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, and the women earned that award for the indoor season.

Goldring’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2011-12 and 2005-06, he was named the General Sports TURF Systems Athletic Director of the Year for the Northeast Region.

“Thanks to director of athletics Bill Goldring, the Ashland University athletic department has removed the element of unpredictability from its world,” reads his biography on the Ashland Athletics website. “Some would bemoan the loss of mystery, but AU fans have no problem with that. Every year, in every season, the Eagles enjoy some sort of success.”

Now, his legacy at the university is in question. What happened to cause such turmoil? There is no shortage of speculation, but seemingly no one has the answers.

Hopefully these questions will be answered sooner rather than later.