Pitt Athletic Director Scott Barnes is expected to accept the same position at Oregon State later this week, multiple sources told Panther-Lair.com.

Barnes, who has been at Pitt since the summer of 2015, has an offer from Oregon State and is expected to give a final decision by the end of the week, sources said. He was hired to replace Steve Pederson, who was fired by Chancellor Patrick Gallagher in December 2014.

The most notable event of Barnes’ tenure at Pitt came this past spring when he hired Kevin Stallings from Vanderbilt after Jamie Dixon, the long-time Panthers’ men’s basketball coach, left for TCU in April.

Additionally, Barnes hired Jay Vidovich, a successful veteran coach, to lead Pitt’s men’s soccer team.

Behind the scenes, Barnes worked to remake Pitt’s Athletic Department. One of the primary focal points was fundraising, as Barnes invested resources and manpower in strengthening Pitt’s network of boosters and donors. He also engaged with Pitt fans and alums, holding a Town Hall Meeting with nearly 500 people in attendance and launching the Panthers Fans Experience Committee shortly after he started at Pitt.

Barnes also initiated research for a master plan to overhaul Pitt’s athletic facilities, from finding better uses for space in the Petersen Events Center to exploring new opportunities for facilities upgrades and additions in the Oakland area.

And, of course, Barnes led Pitt’s full return to the iconic script logo across all sports. He also engineered a rather impressive mobilization of the fan base to sell tickets for last year’s Military Bowl; those efforts were successful as Pitt sold its initial allotment of tickets and several supplementary allotments.

A native of Spokane, Wash., Barnes started his career in collegiate athletics administration at the University of San Diego and took his first Athletic Director position at Humboldt State in 1997. Prior to being hired at Pitt, Barnes was the Athletic Director at Utah State from 2008-15.

As with the hiring of Barnes, Pitt’s search for a new Athletic Director will be led by Gallagher, who started his tenure as Chancellor in August 2014 and was personally responsible for the hiring of football coach Pat Narduzzi.