College football insider addresses Auburn AD Allen Greene's future

Auburn’s men’s basketball team is currently the top ranked team in college basketball. Other Tigers teams across the athletic campus are also seeing tremendous success right now. But despite that, times are incredibly uncertain. In addition to the ongoing Bryan Harsin situation with Auburn football, Tigers athletics director Allen Greene has an uncertain future as well.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, where he addressed Greene’s future in Auburn’s athletic department. Thamel believes that a decision is likely to be coming soon.

“Well, it’ll be interesting moving forward with Allen Greene,” Thamel said of the Auburn AD’s future. “He’s got about 11 months remaining on his initial five-year deal. Holistically, Auburn athletics are in a great place. Their basketball team is obviously No. 1 in the country. Their gymnastics team has Suni Lee and is a sensation.

“The athletic department at Auburn is in very good shape. The football program had a losing season. So I would think the new president, who was just brough in Friday at essentially the same meeting where they were trying to figure out this football coach stuff, will have a decision to make fairly soon on Allen Greene.”

Greene played college baseball at Notre Dame before playing minor league baseball after college in the New York Yankees organization. Following his playing career, Greene joined the Ole Miss athletic department in 2009 as assistant AD. He held that position until 2012, when he left to become Buffalo’s deputy AD. In 2015, Buffalo promoted Greene to full-time AD, and he was hired by Auburn in 2018.

Thamel points to Miami as a similar situation to Greene and Auburn

The Miami Hurricanes just brought in a new athletic director and head football coach. Thamel pointed to Miami as an example when discussing Auburn’s decision coming up regarding Greene.

Interestingly, Thamel also pointed to Auburn’s athletic department as a whole when talking about hiring a replacement, should Greene not be extended. Thamel said that you also have to think about whether or not Auburn’s athletic director will actually have true power if a new one was brought in.

“Remember, Miami just went through a transition,” Thamel added. “They brought in Dan Radakovich from Clemson, who was a high profile hire. And then they hired Mario Cristobal. They intended to hire Cristobal before, but they tried to get the order correct. Here’s a new athletic director, we’re going to bring in a coach, we’re going to get guys to lock arms and go forward together.

“So it will be interesting to see if Auburn does extend Allen Greene, a decision by the new president. Or, do they do what Miami did and bring in a new pairing together moving forward. But that would mean that they want the athletic director to have power, too. That’s the other thing you have to worry about with Auburn here.”