ACC Assistant Commissioner for Men’s Basketball to fill new role on Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly’s staff
TAMPA, APRIL 6, 2022 – Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly has named ACC Assistant Commissioner Lee Butler to the newly formed role of Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Success in USF Athletics.
Butler, who has served at the Atlantic Coast Conference since 2010 and has been in the role of Assistant Commissioner for Men’s Basketball since 2014, will have three main areas of oversight in USF Athletics, including student-athlete facing programs and services, sport administration for the men’s and women’s basketball programs, and department diversity and inclusion oversight. Several athletic department units will report to Butler, including Academics, Sports Medicine (including sports psychology and nutrition), Strength and Conditioning and Student-Athlete Enhancement (including the Selmon Mentoring Institute).
“I am very excited to welcome Lee Butler to our USF Athletics family in this newly formed and very important role,” Kelly said. “A former men’s basketball player at the University of Miami and a recognized rising leader in college athletics, Lee is a tremendous addition to our strong USF Athletics staff. I have known Lee for more than a decade, have seen his leadership and talent in action at the ACC, and know he will have a tremendous impact on the student-athlete experience and success at USF.”
Butler joined the ACC office in 2010 and has served as an Assistant Commissioner for Men’s Basketball since 2014 as well as the Chair of the ACC Racial and Social Justice Committee (CORE). In his assistant commissioner role, he was responsible for promoting relationships among the conference staff and league member institution’s administrators and coaching staffs. He was the primary contact for regular season administration and game management and for game operation items related to the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament while also assisting with game and television scheduling.
As Chair of CORE for the ACC, Butler was responsible for overseeing the internal and external initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion. During Butler’s involvement, CORE established hiring best practices for the conference, created mandatory annual diversity and inclusion training for member schools and the conference office, developed seasonal Unity Weeks that brought awareness and action, and created the ACC Unite Award which recognizes individuals who have made an impact in the areas of racial and social justice.
Butler worked in the ACC Championships department from 2010-2014 before focusing on men’s basketball. He began as the associate director of championships in 2010, was promoted to director of championships in 2011 and again to assistant commissioner for championships in 2013. Butler was responsible for the day-to-day management of 10 Olympic sports including creation of regular season conference schedules, oversight of officiating programs, and resolution of sportsmanship violations. He also oversaw the planning and on-site management of nine Olympic sport championships.
A native of Woodbridge, Va., Butler earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 2006 and a master’s degree in Education with an emphasis on Sport Administration in 2010, both from the University of Miami. He also played on the Hurricanes’ men’s basketball team from 2004-06, earning ACC Honor Roll twice.
Butler began his professional career with his alma mater, serving as the assistant director of events at Miami from 2007-2010, where he was responsible for the planning, budgeting, and game management of multiple sporting events along with ACC and NCAA Championship events hosted on campus.
Butler completed The Sport Management Institute Executive Program in January 2020 and in October 2020 was featured in The Athletic’s list of 40 Under 40 in college basketball, noting 40 influential people in the sport under the age of 40. Butler is a member of CEFMA (Collegiate Event and Facility Management Association) and MOAA (Minority Opportunities Athletic Association) and obtained a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business in 2021.
Lee and his wife, Veronica, have a young son, Boss.
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics currently sponsors 19 varsity men’s and women’s teams that compete in 11 different sports, 18 at the NCAA Division I level in the American Athletic Conference, which will expand to 21 teams with the recently announced additions of women’s lacrosse (2023-24) and women’s beach volleyball (2024-25). The Bulls’ athletic program began in 1965 and completed its 55th season in 2020-21. Nearly 450 student-athletes train and compete in the athletic district located on the east end of the campus in Tampa, Fla. The Bulls have claimed 26 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, including seven trophies in the 2021 calendar year, and own 135 conference titles in department history. The Bulls have posted a combined annual grade-point average over 3.0 for seven straight years and have posted a program-record 14 straight semesters with a combined GPA over 3.0 as of fall of 2021. USF has had nearly 500 student-athletes earn their degree since 2016-17.
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– #GoBulls –
