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Carl Kirschner, left, will be named interim athletic director after Tim Pernetti, right, resigned Friday.

(William Perlman/The Star-Ledger)

Carl Kirschner will reprise his role as Rutgers' interim athletic director, with the school officially expected to appoint him to the position some time today, according to someone familiar with the pending announcement.

The person requested anonymity because the school has not yet made the announcement.

Kirschner, former dean of Rutgers College, served in the interim role in 2009 after Bob Mulcahy was fired and before Tim Pernetti was hired.

He will return to that role for an undetermined period of time as Rutgers launches a search for a new athletic director following Pernetti's resignation on Friday as part of the fallout from the Mike Rice scandal.

Rice was fired as Rutgers' men's basketball coach on Wednesday, a day after a video was aired by ESPN showing him engaging in a pattern of physical and verbal abuse of players during practices.

Kirschner, chairman of the university's Academic Oversight Committee for Athletics, which reviews applications of prospective athletes and also monitors the academic progress of those in the athletic program, was first named interim AD on Dec. 29, 2009.

He officially took over Jan. 1 and served in that capacity until Pernetti assumed the role of full-time athletic director on April 1, 2009. Pernetti was hired on Feb. 26 that year.

The search for a new athletic director last time took approximately seven weeks. Rutgers paid Parker Executive Search of Atlanta $58,000 plus expenses to conduct a nationwide search and also formed a 14-person selection committee.

It is not yet known how quickly Rutgers will form a search committee this time, or if a search firm will again be used, but the latest hiring of an athletic director takes on added urgency because the school also needs to find a new basketball coach.

The Star-Ledger reported today that Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is expected to have a role in the search for a new AD as Rutgers prepares for a move to that conference in 2014.

Wisconsin deputy athletic director Sean Frazier, Michigan State deputy athletic director Greg Ianni, Stony Brook athletic director Jim Fiore, Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw and former Rutgers deputy athletic director Kevin MacConnell, now director of operations for the Tampa Bay Bucs, are among the names on the preliminary list when the search gets underway.