There is something special about coming home. For the recently hired Arizona State Athletics Director, Graham Rossini, home has always been the ASU community. 

Last training camp I found myself at Camp Tontozona, or as Sun Devil fans called it Camp T. On the sideline was a tall, sharply dressed man in an ASU polo. I’d always known of Graham, but had yet to spend real time with him. Before practice began we spent 20 minutes together and just talked about life, the Pac-12, West Coast football and more. His acumen was easy to notice, much like that of Kenny Dillingham. His passion for ASU stood out like any Dillingham press conference and his calm demeanor had me thinking, ‘this should be the next ASU AD.’

As I drove back toward Phoenix that evening two things resonated above all else: Graham Rossini has an elite competitive temperament and has extremely high levels of emotional intelligence. 

To get into the world of college athletics you must know how to compete, and Graham lives with a competitive spirit every day that began as a 4-year-old playing little league baseball in Alabama.

But to lead, I believe you MUST have an elite level of emotional intelligence. Most experts would say that EQ is loosely defined as having the “capacity to deal with the thoughts of yourself and others with empathy.” Graham Rossini does that in spades. Part of that is his family's background in the military, part of that is his father's loyalty to his longtime employer, part of that is life experience in professional sports and part of that is how he views the world.

We sat down during Big-12 Media Days in Las Vegas and dove into all of that as he shared his upbringing as a child, his vision for ASU athletics and his relationship with Kenny Dillingham.

Enjoy our conversation, presented by Y-Option’s Founding Partner, 76.

This episode was executive produced and edited by Jim Thornby

This podcast is a Best Coast Media production

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