By Gary Parrish

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson will announce Monday that he'll retire by the middle of 2012, a source confirmed to CBSSports.com on Sunday.

The news was first reported by MemphisRoar.com.

Johnson has been the Memphis athletic director since 1995. His tenure will be remembered as a time when the men's basketball program became a national brand and made four Elite Eights and one Final Four under John Calipari, but also for the NCAA violations that vacated the 2007-08 season. Johnson has been heavily criticized locally over the past year because the football program sank to an all-time low, and because he failed to get the athletic department properly positioned to receive an invitation to join a BCS-affiliated league.

Memphis fired football coach Larry Porter on Sunday.

He was only there two years.