Monday, October 14, 2024
Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas
Irving, Texas
It’s been a busy first few months for you as the Commissioner of the American. You’ve been all over the country visiting campuses and participating in CFP and commissioner meetings – while dealing with realignment, the House Settlement, and two hurricanes. Can you give us a quick look at what it’s been like for you?
The chaos didn’t take long – it was 100 days or less which was what was predicted. It’s been great. It’s been an interesting journey. As I get out to campuses, everybody is dealing with a different set of circumstances. Everyone is challenged with something locally that maybe is an opportunity to build their program that is separate from the next campus that I visit. But I would tell you this, what I love about the conference is it has a real blue-collar, lunch-bucket mentality. It’s just a gritty league. People are looking to fight and earn whatever is out there for them.
Personally, I’ve just been really inspired by the resilience of the group. As you’ve mentioned, we’ve faced challenges and we’re going to continue to face challenges. That’s not going to stop, but it has really brought the league together. And seeing how they all operated together, even as recently in the last 30 days, has been inspiring to me.
As you have said, the business of college sports is constantly changing; and leadership needs to talk about what’s possible, can you give us a couple of ways you plan to ensure the American stays at pace with all the disruptions?
There are a couple things that I have said to our members when I have gone out to campuses. Number one is leadership is critical at times like this. It’s very easy to lament the past. I’ve said this publicly and I will say it again. We’re in a very challenging period time that won’t end anytime soon. And the reason is there’s been a failure to modernize the industry over time. But real leadership shows itself at times like this. Real leadership is when it’s hard.
But when you look at the future, there are two answers to the question. Internally – investment in athletics. Investment is about young people. Young people choose an institution because they think this place is going to give me the greatest experience that I can have. And that experience is our responsibility. Investment to me is table stakes. It has to continue year-over-year. Our job is to provide great experience for young people, so it starts there.
The second thing is reward. I think some institutions have invested, continue to invest, are creating a great experience, are competing at a high level. And we’re talking about the future, performance-based revenue and trying to provide incentive to our members.
And the third thing is about athletics. I’ve talked to many of the student-athletes over the past day or so. There are no participation trophies in this league. This is a group that is really out to earn it. And when they earn it, they should be rewarded for earning it. Externally it’s different. The thing that drives me crazy about this business is that people are very resistant to talk about change. Whether we like it or not, we’re in the midst of all this chaos due to our failure to change, our failure to modernize over time. So we are where we are. We have to talk about change. It doesn’t mean you have to do it – but we have to talk about it.
Why do private capital groups want to play in college sports? Why are groups out there who want to create a new postseason in football? This thing has such power, and such a high affinity. That’s why private capital opportunities are there. That’s why brands are interested in our conference naming rights. That’s why we’re talking about conference-wide jersey patches.
Our job is to create more resources so our institutions can continue to invest in young people. It’s exciting because there’s never been a time like this in 30 years.
When you’re talking about chaos and change, the national landscape of college sports, you alluded to it – but there’s also conference realignment. It feels like it’s never-ending. How is the navigation of those waters relative to the American Athletic Conference right now?
I’m sorry to say this at a basketball event because I’m more of a football guy. But in the brief period of time that I played basketball in high school, my coach used to always say the same thing to me: “You’ve got to work on your peripheral vision. You’ve got to keep your head on a swivel.” He said that to me every single day. Being a commissioner with realignment, you have to keep your head on a swivel. You have to be aware of everything going on around you.
What I will tell you is I’m really impressed that our institutions that were in the middle of that made a decision to be where there feet are and to build something different. That takes guts. It’s maybe first time in expansion history that someone has turned down the opportunity to do something different.
We had all four members in the room multiple times talking about this. Our job to provide facts and actual outcomes – not deal with could be the projected outcomes. I think we did our job. I admire the institutions because do you know how hard it is to take emotion about this?
When I was the athletic director at Rutgers, we were always in the mix about expansion. And the fans killed me. They absolutely killed me – they had a source, they had the answer, they knew exactly what we should do. But when you’re in it, it’s hard to remove emotion, because presidents and ADs are receiving the pressure of that. But I admire what they did and their commitment to build something because there are opportunities that are different. And I think there are opportunities to build something that has never been seen before, including building across conference lines. Stay tuned on that. There are some exciting things out there.
Have you seen some of the new models being proposed for the future of college sports?
I’ve seen them. I was a party on some of that discussion even before I became commissioner of the conference. If you see the narrative out there, there’s resistance. Why? Because it’s different. Maybe it’s not what happens, but it’s time to talk about change. Your job as commissioner is to listen to everyone, to learn as much as you possibly can, not to turn your head at something different because it potentially could be the future. But why is this happening?
Collegiate athletics is absolute powerhouse. While it has it’s challenges as every industry has, I do think that from being in the room with other commissioners, I do think there are people in the room that are one thousand percent committed to providing a great experience for young people. While some of these models have work to do as it relates to Title IX, to antitrust, they’re worth exploring. That doesn’t mean it will happen, but everything new is worth exploring because it will open our eyes to what’s possible,
I wake up every day with the same thought in my head, and I did this morning. Collegiate athletics has changed my life and I want to do whatever I can do to help resource institutions to change the lives of young people who have committed themselves to be part of their program.
At the end of the day, you can talk about TV, you can talk about money, you can talk about NIL. The reality is our job is to create a great experience, create advocacy. I want kids to turn around in five years and say, “That place changed my life.”
With the growth and popularity in women’s basketball, how can you embrace women’s sports and their exposure. How will that look in The American?
It’s an absolute priority in The American. I was a huge buyer of women’s basketball from the beginning of my time in collegiate athletics. I had the unbelievable opportunity to work alongside Vivian Stringer at Rutgers. Coach Stringer was not only a great coach, but a great partner to me and really opened my eyes to what was possible. Women’s basketball was the most important thing at Rutgers when I went there.
Years later, I had the opportunity when I was at IMG Academy to bring the WNBA season during COVID to IMG. And we were on the forefront of this. People have said this is a moment in time for women’s basketball, and Commissioner (Cathy) Engelbert and I would say this is not a moment in time, this is the beginning of something different. If you look at the success of WNBA and the success of the NWSL, it’s opportunity for everyone to elevate women’s sports.
Women’s basketball will be a priority in this conference, including where our tournament is played and what environment we create for student-athletes. Championships need to feel like big-time events. We need to absolutely do better there than we have in the past. I live in a house with a former Division I lacrosse player who I married 30 years ago and a 17-year-old daughter who is on her way to play Division III lacrosse, so that’s good perspective for me to think about college athletics – that it’s not just about two sports . This is an opportunity for everyone. They’ve taken that chance because they want to have a great experience and that’s going to be a priority here.
Talking about tournaments and navigating change, the other opportunity being talked about is NCAA tournament expansion. What’s your perspective on that?
It’s good that conversation is happening. Again, why is it happening? The NCAA tournament is so valuable, so exciting, so important. Compare it to what’s going on in football. I sit there and say, the one thing that we risk moving away from is the thing we love about the NCAA tournament. That a team from up the street from where I grew up in New Jersey, St. Peter’s or Fairleigh Dickinson, can beat the big guys and make a run. That’s why people love it.
I think it’s a conversation we need to have. The questions become is there incremental value there? Will our TV partners invest more in the NCAA tournament if we expand it? That’s an important question. Because we don’t want to dilute everyone. We want to create more value for everyone.
The second question is are we creating more access for everyone, and not just some ove the other? That’s a critical point. If this expansion means more opportunities for every conference, it’s going to have my vote. It it means more access for some over others, it will not.
What stands out about the men’s and women’s basketball teams in The American?
One thing is a certainty. We sat at dinner last night with the coaches. It was a casual dinner where everyone can get along with each other before we starting beating each other up. We’re going to have great competition inside the league. That’s been something we can count on every single year. The talent in the league in an era of transfer portal, we have student-athletes who have invested in themselves to be in this conference. We expect, in men’s and women’s basketball, for it to be very competitive.
We need to show really well outside the conference as much as we can. That is important for various reasons, including in February and March as it narrows itself with who’s going to compete in the tournament. We have huge markets in this conference, we have terrific venues in this conference, we have tradition in this conference. We play in some of the most historic basketball cities in America in this conference. It’s going to be an exciting year.
We have a great partner with ESPN. Our broad-based exposure on ESPN was a pivotal factor in conference expansion. We have a tried and true partner in ESPN that creates broad-based exposure. What I’m going to do every single day is fight for more exposure. I love what ESPN does for basketball in this conference, but we want our partners to do more, and that’s what I’m focused on.
What do you want the coaches to know about you and what you will fight for as commissioner of The American?
I don’t feel so new anymore. I feel a little more battle-tested after first 100 days. I took this job because the experience of education through sport, the actual mission of this thing, changed my life. I think talking about money, talking about NIL, talking about the transfer portal is putting one thing more toward the bottom of the list, which is the welfare of young people. When I worked at IMG Academy, I saw firsthand what mental health looks like for kids.
I said to some of the coaches last night that I would not want to be a student-athlete right now – not because I don’t want to compete, but the distractions and the pressures of everything that are happening, the social media, should I stay, should I go, discounting the fact that 50 percent of the kids who have entered the portal get stuck in the portal. It’s not all rosy out there. There’s real pressure on young people, more than ever.
But what I told the coaches last night is that you’re going to have someone here who is going to fight for this conference every single day. I can’t predict what the result will be, but I’m going to fight and I’m going to foster change and I’m going to push innovation.
