MINNEAPOLIS -- Miami of Ohio athletics director Joel Maturi is a finalist for the same job at the University of Minnesota.

Maturi was tapped by a search committee and will interview extensively for the job the next week, the university said Tuesday. The school didn't publicly identify any other finalists.

"I'm very enthusiastic,'' said Tonya Moten-Brown, university vice president. "He's just the type of leader we've been looking for.''

Maturi, a Chisholm, Minn., native, has been at Miami since 1998. Miami, of the Mid-American Conference, fields 19 men's and women's sports.

He was director of athletics at the University of Denver from 1996-98 and, before that, associate senior director of athletics at the University of Wisconsin.

University president Mark Yudof said Maturi's experience with budget problems at Wisconsin would make him a valuable asset to Minnesota, which faces a projected shortfall that runs into the millions.

"Wisconsin is our model,'' Yudof said. "There's a program that in the '90s was in trouble ... and Joel was a key player in turning that around.''

Minnesota announced in April it would merge its men's and women's athletic departments as part of an effort to save money. Neither Tom Moe, director of the men's department, nor Chris Voelz, the women's athletic director, were candidates to lead the merged department.

The next athletic director will lead a merged department that can claim some of the nation's finest college teams: Minnesota fielded the NCAA champions this year in men's golf, men's hockey and wrestling.

Should Board of Regents officially select Maturi for the position, he'll have tough task ahead of him, facing anger from women's sports boosters over the merger, and NCAA probation through 2006.

The university had planned to drop men's and women's golf and men's gymnastics because of the money shortage, but boosters have raised about two-thirds of the $2.7 million necessary to keep the sports for three more years.

Still, Moten-Brown said Maturi said the position with Minnesota was a "dream job.''

"I think Joel is so excited and enthusiastic and honored to be named as a finalist,'' she said.