According to the Chicago Tribune's Shannon Ryan, the University of Illinois has concluded their athletic director interviews in Indianapolis. The search committee will reportedly meet again on Wednesday as they move into the final stages of the hiring process.
#Illini concluding athletic director interviews, source says https://t.co/OSdWIShLdF
— Shannon Ryan (@sryantribune) February 2, 2016
Per the report, the seven candidates who participated in face-to-face interviews were Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier, Washington University (St. Louis) athletic director Josh Whitman, Eastern Illinois athletic director Tom Michael, Central Michigan athletic director Dave Heeke, Florida Atlantic athletic director Patrick Chun, Maryland deputy athletic director Kelly Mehrtens, and CEO of Tennis Australia Craig Tiley.
One interesting tidbit from the article is that the university reportedly reached out to Northwestern athletic director and Jim Phillips, but he declined. That isn't terribly surprising because Illinois passed on Phillips a few years ago, and he currently oversees a great situation in Evanston.
Also, it appears that Illinois is still pursuing Colorado athletic director Rick George, who has publicly stated that he isn't interested in the job. It's probably time to move on from him, in my opinion.