Quinnipiac University president John Lahey has announced that Greg Amodio will take over as athletic director as Jack McDonald retires to pursue the same position at the University of New England.

Amodio will be coming to Quinnipiac after spending the past 10 years as the athletic director at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His bio on Duquesne’s website is focused extensively on his accomplishments in renovating the university’s athletic facilities, but he may best be known in western Pennsylvania for cutting four men’s teams from the university in 2010.

Jon Alba, a Quinnipiac alum, reported that Amodio’s experience and success with facility construction and renovation could be a factor in his hiring, as Quinnipiac has been dealing with difficulties in upgrading fields to be in agreement with its Title IX lawsuit settlement.

Alba also reported via Twitter that many of the Quinnipiac coaches were left out in the decision to hire Amodio, and only a few have even met him.

A local Pittsburgh reporter and Duquesne alum, Dejan Kovacevic, published a harsh opinion piece on his website after the news broke. He called Amodio “a disaster from Day 1,” and said that while Amodio had killed baseball, wrestling, golf and swimming at Duquesne, he “ran out of time to kill Duquesne basketball.”

At this morning’s press conference, Amodio said he was excited to be a part of the Bobcat family, and Lahey said he “couldn’t be happier” to have Amodio join the university.