Athletic director Damon Evans is departing the University of Maryland to take the same position at Southern Methodist University. The move comes one day after men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard said Evans was probably leaving, casting doubt over who might negotiate a new contract with Willard.

Colleen Sorem has been named interim athletic director, according to a letter from Evans posted on the Terrapin Athletics website.

In it, Evans wrote that he is proud of the 49 Big Ten conference championships and seven national championships teams have won during his time at the university. He also pointed to improvements made to Xfinity Center, SECU Stadium and other facilities, and the completion of the football program’s $150 million Jones-Hill House training facility.

“Beyond these accomplishments, I am even more proud of the relationships I have built with many of you,” he wrote. “The hardest part of my departure is saying goodbye to so many amazing Terps, alumni, fans and friends. On behalf of my wife Kerry and my entire family, I want to thank you for your support and your friendship.”

The departure has played out in public view, and it comes at a tricky time when the Terps are playing in the NCAA tournament with their highest seed in a decade. They beat Grand Canyon 81-49 on Friday afternoon in Seattle.

Willard has been linked to the coaching job at Villanova. Although Evans approached Willard with a term sheet Sunday, Willard has yet to sign it.

On Thursday, at a press conference in Seattle, Willard outlined his desire to elevate Maryland’s basketball program but said he needed to see “fundamental changes” to succeed.

Willard said Maryland has been “one of the worst, if not [the] lowest, in NIL in the last two years.”

Willard noted how the Terps weren’t allowed to stay an extra day in New York this season to celebrate Christmas because it would cost too much.

“I don’t know how we can be a top-tier program and I can’t spend one extra night in New York because it’s too expensive,” he said.

Willard added: “I need to make fundamental changes to the program. That’s what I’m focused on right now. That’s why probably a deal hasn’t gotten done, because I want to see, I need to see, fundamental changes done. I want this program to be great. I want it to be the best in the country. I want to win a national championship, but there’s things that need to change.”

When delivering this message, Willard dropped the caveat that Evans was expected to join SMU. That move was finalized Friday. Yahoo Sports first reported that the deal between Evans and SMU was finished.

Evans worked for the Terrapins for 11 years and oversaw Maryland’s athletic department for nearly eight of them. Among his biggest hires were football coach Mike Locksley and Willard, whom Evans brought in to keep some of the Terps’ high-visibility sports competitive against rival Big Ten schools with bigger budgets.

Although the program’s non-revenue sports have attained success, including conference and national championships, Locksley (32-36) and Willard (64-38) have had mixed results.

Evans assumed control in a time of departmental instability. He officially took over in 2018 for his boss Kevin Anderson when the university was under the shadow of the death of football player Jordan McNair, but he had been in charge before that while Anderson took a sabbatical. He departs in a time of instability, too, as college sports continue to evolve through name, image and likeness programs, revenue sharing and the transfer portal.

Evans oversaw dramatic overhauls to the Terps’ on-campus facilities, including the Jones-Hill House and the $50 million basketball practice facility that will open this year. Evans also served on the NCAA Transitional Committee, and this month he was named to the College Football Playoff Committee.

Evans’ successor will shape policies with massive repercussions in college sports’ revenue-sharing era. In January, Evans announced that Maryland would share the maximum allowable $20.5 million with student-athletes starting this fall.

With Evans’ departure, it’s unclear how that strategy — and other issues with NIL budgeting and department resources — will be affected.

Current SMU athletic director Rick Hart, who presided over the school’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, announced in February that he would be stepping down. The Mustangs made the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff this past season, their first in the ACC, and hired former USC coach Andy Enfield last year to lead their men’s basketball program.

David B. Miller, co-chair of SMU’s search committee, said in a news release that the Texas school picked Evans to help continue its rise to “even greater national prominence,” pointing to his experience in the Big Ten with Maryland and the Southeastern Conference with Georgia, where Evans was athletic director from 2004 to 2010.

The school has touted its fundraising efforts since joining the ACC. Last year, the athletic department exceeded its goal of raising $125 million as part of what it called the ACC Competitiveness Campaign, according to a press release.

In a statement about his new job, Evans said that, while leaving Maryland was hard, “the opportunity to come to SMU was too great to pass up.”

“SMU has tremendous momentum in all aspects of its Athletics program, but I believe we can push to even greater heights. I am honored to join the University and to be a part of something truly special,” he said.

This story has been updated.