The AthleticDirectorU Podcast

Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett sits down to discuss the challenges facing leaders and how he is leading through them, communicating core values, inflection points during his career, and advice for the next generation of leaders. The conversation is moderated by Baylor Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Success Marcus Sedberry.

1:05 - What are some things that have changed over the course of your tenure at the Southland Conference? 2:02 - With all of the the challenges that leaders are facing on a regular basis, how has your leadership and management style changed with it? 3:50 - How do you ensure that members understand and can execute the core values of the Southland? 4:49 - What are some of the challenges that might be impacting tenure of some of ADs, Presidents and Chancellors? 6:29 - What what can division leaders continue or begin to do to advance and enhance the FCS platform? 8:36 - What have been some inflection points during your career that have changed the trajectory of the work that you do on a daily basis? 10:41 - What were some of the things you did as a leader to help your teams and your schools navigate some of the challenges and issues happening in the industry? 12:18 - What advice do you have for leaders who are coming up in this generation, about college athletics or leadership as a whole?

South Florida Athletic Director Michael Kelly sits down with INFLCR Founder & CEO Jim Cavale to discuss Kelly's approach to building his team during his time as COO of the College Football Playoff and early into his tenure at USF, supporting initiatives related to social media, helping student-athletes promote their brands and much more.

1:26 - How you were able to put together the team and the plan to grow the College Football Playoff into what it is today? 2:52 - What was the intention behind the CFP's multimedia approach? 5:49 - How did you approach entering your role as Director of Athletics at South Florida? 7:09 - What goes into your decision-making process when it comes to hiring decisions? 8:41 - What is your personal approach to social media? 10:49 - How are you supporting initiatives and people that have to do with social media aspect and how you're owning it as being really your own media network? 14:01 - Would you agree that student-athletes telling their stories helps USF tell its story at the same time?

Collegiate Sports Associates' Founder & President Todd Turner and VP of Consulting Brad Bates discuss their experiences and advice in navigating to become an Athletics Director. Turner and Bates chat about career advice, recommended skillsets, building relationships, flexibility and much more. The conversation is moderated by Blue Devil Network Executive Director Dave Harding.

2:21 - What are some of advantageous traits to having when becoming an athletics director? 4:08 - When you started your career in athletics, was it always your goal to become an AD or did your career lead you onto this path? 7:33 - What do you wish you had known before making the jump into the AD chair? 9:37 - Is there one track that you would recommend people take to becoming an AD? 11:57 - In the search process, what are some things that will set you apart from candidates in a negative way? 13:57 - How much emphasis should ADs and senior level administrators put on managing and making relationships with the senior level administrators for the institution? (Turner) 15:45 - How important is it for an AD to be flexible during the course of their career? 18:20 - Are there any areas where people may put too much attention into certain aspects of their professional career? 19:56 - How do you remain in touch with the student-athletes and the people on the ground level within an athletic department when you've got so many different aspects evolving so quickly? 22:24 - How do you value tenure at one institution versus an individual who has bounced around in making a hire? 24:07 - Is there one piece of advice that you wish you'd known when you were 35 years old that would have made your careers that much easier and more enjoyable? 25:41 - How much does have having a resume come across your desk for someone who did play collegiate athletics change your perception of them? 28:05 - As an AD, how would you appreciate someone that's coming up the race asking you for guidance or to stand in a mentorship position? 29:38 - What is the hardest part about being an Athletics Director? 29:52 - Who is the most important campus-based leader to form a relationship with that is not the president or chancellor? 30:47 - What is one decision you made early in your career that was extremely difficult to make at the time that you were incredibly glad you made? 32:34 - As an AD, how much time is an amount of time for an individual to be productive in their role? 35:41 - When you are a senior staff administrator looking to take the next step into becoming athletic director, what are you looking for to make sure you're applying for a job that is right for you?

Baylor Assistant AD for Mental Health Services Dr. Monique Marsh-Bell and LSU Director of Student-Athlete Mental Health Dr. LaKeitha Poole join AthleticDirectorU to chat about the intricacies of mental health services provided to student-athletes. Marsh-Bell and Poole also touch on how the COVID-19 pandemic and social injustice have affected student-athletes and their abilities to provide services, the return to campus, the future of mental health and more.

1:52 - Explain how your previous experience providing counseling services on campus differs from your current experience providing counseling services in athletics. 4:10 - What is the difference between a clinical psychologist, a sport psychologist, and a clinical social worker? 7:33 - What is your staff makeup in terms of mental services? 9:17 - What can schools with less resources do to provide mental health services for student-athletes? (Poole) 11:37 - How have you seen the mental health services industry evolve throughout your career? 14:23 - Does the face that you are African-American make it easier for African-American student-athletes to utilize your services? Is it a factor if/when student-athletes want to talk about racism or social injustice? 17:31 - What are your thoughts on the future of mental health in college athletics? 21:19 - How has the pandemic lockdown affected utilization of your services? 28:05 - Do you see any hesitation or psychological concerns amongst student-athletes related to returning to campus during the pandemic? 31:10 - Are there any procedures for returning to campus that relate to mental health and student-athletes? 34:56 - What are the NCAA's guidelines regarding mental health services within athletics departments? Do the guidelines go far enough? 38:01 - Is there anything else that the college athletics community should know about the topic of mental health services in college athletics?

AthleticDirectorU and Advent's CEO John Roberson host a town hall with leaders from around college athletics to discuss how administrators and coaches are working to enact change on their campuses. The panel discusses promoting conversations with student-athletes, best practices for universities and departments to make a change, the responsibility of coaches to communicate with their student-athletes and much more.

3:36 - Opening remarks (Frazier) 9:34 - Over the course of your careers as leaders, what are some of the practices you have had your programs(s) engage in to promote conversations with student-athletes around issues of race, diversity and minority status? From your experience are there approaches that are largely ineffective when it comes to these types of conversations? (Jude, Frazer, Castiglione) 30:02 - Should the athletics department be spearheading these conversations with student-athletes, or does the institution have an obligation to have a unified message and effort across the entire student-body? What best practices have you seen universities undertake as it relates to these efforts? (Howard & Gill) 43:23 - What have you seen on campus that has not worked 51:14 - What is the coach's responsibility in having these conversations with their student-athletes? Why only now are we seeing coaches respond? (Tucker) 1:08:03 - How does an older, white male from a privileged background, reach a level of authenticity with a sincere desire to push for change? 1:16:30 - Is anyone working or planning to work in congruence with campus/city police to build trust and increase transparency between student-athletes/overall student body? 1:30:12 - What can African-American assistant coaches say or do, to help white head coaches to better understand how to use their voice as a catalyst for change? 1:50:41 - How will you deal with season ticket holders, donors, and alumni who don't agree with where you as an administrator or where the university stands on social injustice?

Jack Patterson, Vice President of Digital & Social Media, Multi-Media Rights for Learfield IMG College, joins Jay F. Hicks on the Sports Creatives Podcast. The pair discuss how Patterson and his team are working with athletic departments to retain and grow revenues during these times of uncertainty and dig in on the importance of Social+, their 18 content producing partners and the value they are providing to their partners. Patterson also touches on how the Learfield IMG College merger has impacted his department and how they can serve athletic departments and sponsors.

3:10 – How is Learfield IMG College working with its partners, in terms of social and digital, to retain and grow revenues? 5:22 – What are partners doing in the current environment since there are no sporting competitions? 8:07 – How did the Learfield and IMG College merger change how your department is serving athletic departments and sponsors? 12:23 – With the increased level of resources, are you seeing that athletic departments and sponsors feel like they're getting better value? 14:43 – How does this Social+ work and how can it impact what athletic departments can do, in terms of social and digital and creating content? 26:27 – What advice would you give to someone who is leading their external relations, has creatives on their team and is responsible for sponsored content? 32:13 – How important is it to have the creative team involved from the beginning when creating branded content?

Every institution seemingly switched from in-person to online education as the coronavirus struck institutions across the country. As fall approaches there's still speculation as to how classes will be delivered, which leads to a lot of questions surrounding remote learning. How will institutions prevent, monitor and enforce academic integrity? Will institutions have enough time to adequately move their courses to an online format? Will they be prepared to do this again if another outbreak hits? Is online education more suited for a busy student athlete if the course design passes heavy scrutiny? Dr. Duane Dunn is the Associate Dean for Kansas State Global and he joined the Higher Ed Athletics podcast to discuss these questions and more to give listeners an idea of what's ahead in online higher education as we attempt to coincide with COVID-19. 1:46 - What's the challenge like in actually preparing an online course quickly? 7:09 - How does an institution typically prevent, monitor or even enforce discipline for academic integrity issues for remote learning? 12:52 - How would student-athletes be proctored for exams if they are taking online courses while on-campus? 17:17 - Do you think online degrees across the nation will become normalized and readily available for "traditional" students, such as student-athletes? 24:13 - What are some of the advantages and potential disadvantages of using an Online Program Management system?

NCAA Senior Vice President of Administration/CFO Kathleen McNeely sits down with UCLA Senior Associate AD/CFO Chris Iacoi and Athletic Director U to discuss the financial challenges facing college athletics and the association as a result of COVID-19.

1:29 - How did the NCAA handle the initial stages of the pandemic? 4:04 - How has your role as the business manager been affected by the pandemic? 6:19 - What went into the NCAA distribution decisions for fiscal year 19-20 and what resources were available to distribute 11:01- In developing the annual budget, what are the NCAA's main revenue sources and what are the threats to those sources? 13:33 - What are some of the major expenses the NCAA is anticipating now and in the future? 16:32 - How much thought has gone into rebuilding budget reserves? 18:10 - Are there milestones that show how budgets will look for 20-21? 20:17 - As the national office and institutions budget forward, is it safe to assume distribution figures will return to normal? 22:59 - How are Agreed Upon Procedures (AUPs) categories defined and do you see any upcoming changes? 24:53 - How are you and how can business managers in the industry help?

Russell Houghtaling, Associate Athletic Director, Ideation at Oregon State, joins Jay F. Hicks on the Sports Creatives Podcast. Houghtaling discusses Oregon State's approach to handling COVID-19 for their staff, his creative leadership philosophy, sharing content during these uncertain times, the impact on creative departments, Oregon State's approach for sponsored content and much more.

3:32 - How did your department approach working from home? 6:54 - Since you began putting the plan in place in early March, how are you leading your team now? 10:36 - How is your organization operating and communicating right now? 14:31 - What will the impact of COVID-19 be on creative departments over the next academic year? 20:02 - How did your department handle the hire of a new Head Wrestling Coach during this pandemic? 22:09 - What's your though process on figuring out roles as a creative leader? 26:49 - What is Oregon State's strategy to maintain revenue without live events? 30:10 - Walk us through your Let's Go Places road trip sponsored content series. 33:19 - What is next for the Oregon State brand?