#10: Utah names Notre Dame Senior Assoc. AD for Revenue Generation and Business Innovation Patrick Nowlin as the Utes’ first CRO. (link)
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#9: Grand Canyon borrows some of EA Sports College Football 25’s shine to unveil its men’s basketball non-conference slate in a fictional College Basketball 25. Have a look. (link)
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#8: Quote of the Day came from former Alabama Football HC Nick Saban on ESPN College GameDay as the crew was discussing NIL: "I just want to say: you guys keep talking about a $20 million roster. If you don’t pay the right guys, you’re shit out of luck.” Kirk Herbstreit shook Saban’s hand and quipped: “Congratulations, you just broke the Internet.” (link)
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#7: The rapid pace of change in college sports means the structure of athletic departments may be “altogether unrecognizable within five years,” according to SBJ’s Terry Lefton, who adds: “More immediately, the revenue pressure has skyrocketed and new positions are being created and recruited, such as CROs or GMs of important revenue sports, like football and basketball.” TurnkeyZRG Chairman/CEO Len Perna tells Lefton the changes have already “totally altered the candidate pools for many collegiate positions and now include people who never would have been interested or included just a few years ago.” Excel Sports Management’s Nolan Partners President Chad Biagini points out, however, that the transfer of executive talent from pro to college isn’t simple. “You have a lot of people who assume they are your boss in that environment, so I would tell you that stakeholder management and the ability to bring them on the journey with you is essential for success in the college space. … In many of these new [collegiate] positions, a big and ongoing part of the college scene now is attracting the best athletes, which may have less to do with the school itself and more about who is running the programs.” Meanwhile, UTA’s James & Co./UTA Executive Search Founder Michele James comments on the way tech is impacting talent acquisition: “[Organizations] are preparing for things like AI and massive computing and filling those jobs with people who will absolutely need to impact revenue. They are looking for a faster booking or ticketing system and to speed up payment cycles. It’s changing to where the CTO is going from being the know-how office to the how-to revenue office.” (link)
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#6: The five new student-athletes joining the former rowing student-athletes’ House case objection include two current Yale volleyball players (Georgiana Barr and Mila Yarich), one former SMU swimmer (Elise Johnson), one former Arizona State swimmer (Rachael Holp) and one former Temple rower (Charlotte Forman). (link)
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#5: The departure of former Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs “raises uncomfortable questions for the high-level university officials like President Jonathan Holloway who had hoped — naively, of course — that this entire affair would disappear as quickly as Hobbs did,” according to NJ Advance Media’s Steve Politi, who asks: “Why was Rutgers so vehement in its insistence that Hobbs had stepped away for health reasons when an investigation was underway? Was the university so desperate to protect itself from potential litigation that it misled the community about the circumstances that led Hobbs, one of its highest-paid employees, to leave his job?” Politi goes on to cite former President Robert Barchi, who witnessed firsthand how a scandal involving the basketball coach could overshadow everything else at the university and said: “It was a revelation that the intensity of the response, both within the community, within the state and nationally on this very important and very serious issue could totally swamp out all of the other issues we’re trying to deal with and color everything else we’re doing.” Politi adds: That hasn’t happened here…yet. Holloway…needs to assure the Rutgers community that the results of both investigations will be revealed when they are completed. He also needs to launch a nationwide search to find Hobbs’ replacement, a hire that is far too important to get wrong.” (link)
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#4: Santa Clara selects Stanford Deputy AD/SWA Heather Owen as its next AD, starting September 17. President Julie Sullivan: “We are in a transformative moment for college athletics overall, and several important qualities stood out that make Heather the ideal person to lead Santa Clara Athletics. She has high academic and athletic aspirations for her student-athletes, and the experience, commitment, and track record to support them in attaining both. Her success as a student-athlete and WNBA player reveals her competitive nature and commitment to excellence. As a leader, she has the smarts and strategic and operational acumen needed to achieve it—and, importantly, the candor, calm, and trustworthiness required to successfully manage the challenges faced in building a highly competitive program. In Heather, we have found the perfect fit.” Parker Executive Search assisted with the process. (link)
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#3: The Arizona Daily Star’s Greg Hansen observes that Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois has changed the face of the Wildcats’ leadership team by bringing in six new Assoc. ADs from Missouri. “Let’s say this: She surely knows what she is getting. By comparison, former AD Dave Heeke brought in people from Austin Peay and Kansas, among others, to form the leadership of his staff. It didn’t work. One of the key upper-level staffers he inherited, Mike Ketcham, soon left for UNLV, of all places. In retrospect, it is probably a needed change. While, in my opinion, Heeke could hold his own with any AD in the old Pac-12, his staff was stocked with some robotic figures — those who did little to rescue the athletic department during a seven-year financial crisis or create a presence in the athletic community.” Hansen also notes Reed-Francois has “wisely kept” [Executive Senior Assoc. AD/SWA] Erika Barnes “who…I believe could be an athletic director if she chose to pursue that type of career.” (link)
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#2: U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken will not rule on the House settlement following yesterday's hearing as she indicated she will "throw it back on [the lawyers] to find something workable, something consistent" with respect to the third party and booster restrictions, adding: "I think it seems to me likely enough that there will be a settlement." Following these comments, NCAA counsel Rakesh Kilaru: "We have to talk about whether we have a deal." During the hearing, Wilken suggested she would give preliminary approval to the Hubbard portion of the case and is "reluctant to stay Fontenot case," while encouraging the NCAA to request the Colorado judge overseeing that case to delay Fontenot. Fox Sports' Bryan Fischer adds: "NCAA counsel says they don’t want to finalize Hubbard settlement without doing House. House plaintiffs say it’s not an issue." (link, link, link)
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#1: NJ.com’s Brian Fonseca reports former Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs is being investigated by the university for a “a possible ‘inappropriate, consensual relationship’ [...] that investigation is believed to have spurred his abrupt resignation on Aug. 16.” Fonseca writes further that the relationship in question includes Women’s Gymnastics HC Umme Salim-Beasley. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy commented when asked about recent reports of a toxic environment for Women’s Gymnastics student-athletes: “I know there is an investigation underway, so I don’t want to preempt that. I have no insights into that. But that was really ugly and very disturbing. I’ve reached out to Rutgers at the highest levels. I know they have an internal investigation going, but that was a pretty disgusting set of facts in the paper. We shall see.” (link)
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