Soon after Athletic Director Bill Martin submitted a letter to University President Mary Sue Coleman announcing his retirement effective next year and shared the announcement with Athletic Department staff in a department-wide meeting yesterday, speculation began over who would succeed Martin as athletic director.

Though many names were floated among members of the University community yesterday, University executives have not yet released the names of any possible replacements.

In a statement released yesterday, Coleman wrote she would manage the process of hiring a new athletic director.

“I will personally oversee the search for the next Athletic Director with the help of a small advisory group,” Coleman wrote. “We expect this process will take a number of months. With this advance notice, we have the opportunity to make a thoughtful and deliberate choice and to manage a smooth transition.”

Similar to the process used when Bill Martin was hired as athletic director in 2000, the advisory committee will recommend candidates for Coleman’s consideration, though the final decision will be up to the University president.

In an interview yesterday, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said no one has been asked to serve on the advisory committee yet. Fitzgerald also said Coleman will personally choose the committee members.

Of the many names circulating around the rumor mill, former University regent David Brandon has been highlighted as one of the primary frontrunners.

Brandon, the current president and CEO of Domino’s Pizza, played as a back-up quarterback for Michigan and was on three Big Ten Championship teams during his years at the University in the early 1970s, though he does not have any experience as an athletic director.

However, Brandon, 57, does run a company with annual sales of $6 billion and has stayed very active in University affairs. He has volunteered time and money to help spearhead the campaign to build the University’s new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital and renovate the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

In an interview yesterday, Brandon said picking Martin’s successor should be left to Coleman’s discretion.

“It’s not a job to campaign for. It’s not a job that gets elected. It’s a job that (Coleman) needs to choose based on her criteria,” Brandon said. “Only Mary Sue Coleman knows what she wants to do and how she wants to do it.”

Asked whether he would be interested in becoming the University’s athletic director, Brandon would not confirm or deny whether he had any interest in the position.

“I am not campaigning for, against, involved or uninvolved,” Brandon said. “I’m doing what I do for a living and that is, right now, running my Domino’s Pizza corporation, and that’s a job that I love very much.”

University lecturer John U. Bacon — a noted journalist and historian of Michigan athletics — included Brandon on his list of people he feels are contenders for the job.

Bacon also mentioned current Miami (Ohio) University Athletic Director Brad Bates, current University of New York at Buffalo Athletic Director Warde Manuel and current Oregon State University Athletic Director Bob De Carolis as potential frontrunners.

“As far as candidates come, you hear the same three or four names floating around, but I don’t know if anybody has got an inside track at this point,” Bacon said.

Former Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr, who stepped down from coaching in November 2007, has also been rumored as someone worthy of consideration.

Carr, now 64, has worked in the Athletic Department since 1980, when he was hired as the defensive secondary coach under Bo Schembechler. His coaching career at Michigan continued until he resigned from his post as the head football coach in November 2007. After stepping down, Carr was appointed associate athletic director, a position he still holds.