From The Gist Team |
Taylor may have been wrong because Pac-12 school Colorado is getting back together…with the Big 12 in fall 2024. While we process that jaw-dropping news (and LOL at the world’s reactions), we’re exploring college sports’ invisible infrastructure: athletic departments (ADs).
Quote of the Day |
I would say the main role of an athletic department is to support our student-athletes in their whole quest to be excellent…from recruiting, all the way through graduation and, honestly, beyond….[It's] taking them from being a standout athlete to making them a huge contributor to the world. |
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— Michigan State (MSU) associate athletic director Julee Burgess, explaining the overall job of an AD in an exclusive interview with The GIST. Inspiring. |
The Latest |
The GIST: The business of college sports is undeniably complicated, so it’s no surprise that major ADs require not-so-small armies to keep competition running smoothly. As the aforementioned Burgess told The GIST, “every day is different, which is fun, except it's also chaos.”
The departments: MSU has approximately 300 full-time employees across more than 20 subdivisions keeping the ship afloat. Fans interact with divisions like ticketing, marketing, and communications, but there’s also a myriad of folks behind-the-scenes.
The overlap: These sub-departments are in constant communication as they work to get sh!t done. And while the buck stops with the athletic director, it’s the sport administrators who manage all the moving parts for their assigned teams. Burgess helms four (!!!) of MSU’s 21 teams, plus oversees all the other sport admins.
The GIST: Arguably the most complicated task an AD must contend with is compliance, which includes ensuring the department, teams, staff, and student-athletes are all functioning in accordance with NCAA, conference, state, and federal regulations (which, of course, sometimes may contradict each other). In other words, that’s a lot of rulebooks.
The coordination: Schools generally have an NCAA committee delegation, but most communication and collaboration instead runs through an institution’s conference. For MSU, the Big Ten “divv[ies] out the information,” and the compliance office receives “notifications on legislation changes, probably weekly,” Burgess explained.
The art of equity: Leveling the playing field is as much art as it is science. While Title IX’s enshrinement of gender equity seems straightforward, making it happen is anything but easy. At MSU, the Title IX coordinator is a certified lawyer, who, among other duties, ensures that rosters meet Title IX standards within the NCAA’s complicated scholarship limitations.
Scholarship calculations: NCAA sports are either head-count sports, like football, basketball, and volleyball, where the number of athletes on scholarship is set in stone, or equivalency sports, where the set number of scholarships can be divided amongst as many athletes as the AD and coaching staff choose.
Zooming out: If the idea of building a roster and maintaining compliance has you feeling like the math lady — same. A women’s team with exiting international players that suddenly recruits an in-state class, for instance, shifts scholarship expenditure equity, so coaches are constantly coordinating with compliance when navigating potential recruits and transfers.
The GIST: Compliance gymnastics aren’t the only Olympic-level juggling ADs must do — they’re also responsible for navigating their programs through the rapidly changing tides of college sports, from the transfer portal’s ship-jumping extravaganza and beyond…
Revenue: One of the most critical functions of ADs is managing the revenue that pours in via donations, ticket and merch sales, media deals, conference distributions, and other sources. And with fan donations increasingly being redirected from ADs to NIL collectives, handling those finances is becoming harder than budgeting on Prime Day.
NIL: ADs must also contend with the stark lack of cohesive regulation for operating in the NIL space, especially when it comes to recruiting and the transfer portal. Nonetheless, MSU’s AD is working to help create the best possible opportunities for their athletes, recently dedicating full-time staff to helm their national award-winning NIL initiatives.
Conference realignment: As conference moves shake up the NCAA landscape, they’re creating unique challenges for ADs. For instance, the Big Ten’s impending California expansion is a sport-by-sport scheduling puzzle. Burgess also mentioned that MSU will be having “a lot of nutrition conversations and sleep training for those games out West.” Exhausting.
Women’s sports advocacy: ADs are also at the forefront of the fight to elevate women’s sports. One success story? After shifting MSU’s women’s volleyball games from a periphery fieldhouse into the campus’s main arena last year, fans who’d been skeptical of the move ended up thanking Burgess for taking that leap of faith. Women’s sports, meet the biggest stages.
Content warning: This section contains mention of sexual assault, harassment, intimidation, stalking, and hazing.
The GIST: On Wednesday, three current and former Butler University women’s soccer players filed lawsuits against the team’s former athletic trainer, Michael Howell, alleging years of sexual assault and harassment. Horrifying.
The allegations: Along with sexual abuse, Howell’s accused of intimidation, manipulation, and creating a controlling environment in the training room, as well as stalking and inappropriately photographing and videoing athletes. At least six women have come forward to corroborate the claims.
The lawsuits: In addition to Howell, the three suits name the university and Ralph Reiff, a senior AD official overseeing student-athlete well-being, as defendants. The complaints allege a failure of policy and a lack of supervision that allowed Howell’s abuse to occur.
Zooming out: This is yet another infuriating instance of student-athlete abuse at the hands of those charged with their well-being. It also parallels the ongoing implosion at Northwestern (and potentially, Minnesota), as hazing and toxic culture create additional horrific headlines. Institutions’ attempts to address abuses have clearly fallen short. When will they finally protect these players?
The GIST's Picks |
Hi. It’s us. We’re the recommenders, it’s us.
This series. Following the USWNT’s journey throughout the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup (WWC), Netflix announced an all-access show on the squad. Can’t wait is an understatement.
This ad. If you’re not already pumped watching the WWC, this ad supporting the French squad is sure to do the trick.
This pod. Megan Reyes’ Between Two Worlds examines the Filipino-American experience alongside the Philippines women’s national team’s journey to their first-ever WWC.
On @thegistusa’s Instagram on August 2nd for The GIST Book Club’s discussion of July’s pick, One Life by USWNT star Megan Rapinoe. Save it to your calendar and we’ll kick it together soon.