The Business of College Sports

This episode I'm joined by Oliver Luck, former WVU football student athlete, NFL player, NCAA administrator...and perhaps most important to this conversation, the former WVU athletic director who guided the Mountaineers through the last round of conference realignment.  While Luck considered it an honor to be the athletic director at his alma mater, he was faced with challenges during his ten...

I'm joined this episode by Rob Seiger, a partner in Archer & Greiner P.C.’s Sports Law Group, to talk about the issues facing international student athletes when it comes to taking advantage of new name, image and likeness rights.  Rob represents college and university athletic departments in immigration and related compliance issues for their foreign athletes. So, we chatted about the ad...

I'm joined this week by Malik Jackson , an associate attorney at Smith Hulsey & Busey in Jacksonville, Florida who is a member of the firm's sports litigation department. A former Princeton quarterback, middle school teacher and football coach, Jackson has taken a particular interest in how NIL impacts student athletes prior to their arrival on a college campus. Although we used Flor...

This week, I'm joined by a former U.S. Navy Seal and Purple Heart recipient who now serves as a D3 athletic director. Mike Wisecup  is the AD at Colby College and joined us to discuss his background as a Navy Seal and how he applies it to his athletic department. Wisecup also discussed the challenging aspects of his job--one of which is maintaining cohesiveness within an athletic department....

I'm joined on this episode by Drew Butler, EVP of Collegiate at Icon Source , a platform where student athletes (and professional athletes) can connect with brands for partnerships. We recorded on the second day of this new NIL Era and talked all about how it's going so far. One of our main focuses in this podcast is how female student athletes will fare in this new system. Drew talked a...

This episode, I'm joined by Justin Herzig, co-founder of Own the Moment NFT . He's schooling me on all things NFT, so if you barely understand what an NFT is, this episode is for you! Justin gave me some great background on NFTs and then we dove into what they might look like in the college space. Here are some highlights from our talk: The definition of an NFT How NFT’s can be beneficia...

This week I'm joined by two guests: Jim Cavale, CEO of INFLCR, and Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential. We're chatting about how AI can help student athletes improve and grow their social media platforms and attract offers from brands. INFLCR and Influential announced a partnership that will give the student athletes on INFLCR's platform the ability to tap into Influential's IBM wi...

This episode I'm joined by Jim Carr, the President and CEO of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). As I mention in the opening, we originally recorded this informally as an interview for a Forbes piece I was writing. However, we had such a great chat I decided to ask Jim if we could turn it into a podcast episode, and he graciously agreed. In this episode, we discuss:...

I'm joined this week by Darren Heitner, a Florida attorney who helped draft and promote Florida's initial NIL legislation to talk about where we're at currently with NCAA, state and federal legislation. As of the publication of this episode, five states have NIL laws that go into effect on July 1, 2021, with several other states still pushing to pass legislation with the same effect...

I'm joined in this episode by Brian Kappel , a partner in Lightfoot, Franklin & White's NCAA Compliance & Investigations practice group. Kappel is here to break down the NCAA's new Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP). The IARP is a group of lawyers, judges and arbitrators who operate separately from the NCAA to handle complex infractions cases. There are oft...

I'm joined this episode by Eric Nichols, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Marketing and Branding/Chief Marketing Officer at the University of South Carolina. This spring, South Carolina announced it would be rolling back its season ticket prices to 2010 prices in an effort to motivate fans to purchase. Like most athletic departments, South Carolina had a difficult year financially in 2...

Todd Berry, executive director of the American Football Coaches Foundation, joined the podcast to discuss the concerns football coaches across the country as name, image and likeness legislation is passed at the state level and proposed at the national level and within the NCAA. There were a lot of interesting nuggets in this one, including: What recruits are already asking football coaches How bo...

It's been seven months since Tim Russell, CEO of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association , joined the podcast to talk about why tennis was being cut more than any other sport during the pandemic. It was my most-listened to episode of 2020, so I asked Tim if we could revisit the subject now that we've seen several more tennis programs eliminated. The ITA is the governing body of college te...

In this episode, I'm joined by Samantha Arsenault Livingstone , an Olympic Gold Medalist,  high-performance consultant, speaker, educator and mental health advocate.  Samantha was a member of the U.S. Swimming National Team, 1999 U.S. Pan Pacific Team and 2000 U.S. Olympic Team. As an 18-year-old, she stood atop the Olympic podium in Sydney, Australia after swimming the lead-off leg of the re...

I'm joined today by Stephanie Stabulis of Social Creates Impact , who I've been partnering with on some educational programming for coaches, administrators and student athletes as we enter the NIL era. Stephanie is a former award-winning, top influencer marketing agency executive passionate about bringing more training, resources and education to influencers and brands. She has designed...

I'm joined this episode by Malaika Underwood, the SVP of Licensing for OneTeam Partners . Malaika has extensive experience in the licensing arena and is a former standout intercollegiate athlete and professional athlete herself. Malaika recently joined OneTeam from The Brandr Group, where she worked on the forefront of the college NIL issue. She also managed partnerships with player associati...

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Deborah Stroman, who is a professor at UNC and the founder and CEO of the Center of Sport Business and Analytics . Dr. Stroman was also the  first Black scholarship female student athlete at the University of Virginia, where she captained the basketball team in her senior year. She also became the first Black female coach at UNC when she served as an assista...

In this episode, I'm joined by Melissa Korn, a Wall Street Journal reporter who co-authored the newly released book Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal with her WSJ colleague Jennifer Levitz. One morning in March 2019, many of America's rich and powerful woke to three hundred FBI agents at their doors. Among them were actress Felicity Huffma...

The topic of coaching salaries, particularly for college football and men's basketball coaches, are often pointed to as an excessive source of spending for athletic departments. With athletic departments facing unprecedented financial difficulties, it's an expense some are looking at more closely. It has been suggested that salary caps be instituted similar to what we see for professiona...

Prep QB coach Denny Thompson of 6Points joined the podcast to discuss the unintended consequences of the NCAA's decision to grant Division I fall student athletes an extra year of eligibility and an extra year to complete their eligibility. Denny chatted with me for my Forbes piece on the issue hours after the decision was announced, so in this podcast we're diving deeper into why this i...

What can history tell us about the ability of college football to weather a pandemic? Jeremy Swick, the historian and curator of the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame , joins me this week to chat about the 1918 Spanish Flu and how both it and World War I impacted college football. What was it like with some teams playing and others not? What was college football like when it was all over?...

Scott Nestler , managing partner of SafeSeating Solutions , joined the podcast to talk about his new SaaS that was developed to help athletic departments plan for the return of fans to the stands for football, basketball, baseball and other sports. Whenever fans are allowed in the stands again, stadiums and arenas will likely be operating at reduced capacity. So, how do you seat 30% capacity while...

I'm joined by Matt Fairhurst, founder and CEO of Skedulo , to discuss how his company is working with BioReference Laboratories to implement COVID-19 testing protocols in professional sports leagues like the NBA and MLS. One of the hurdles faced by professional sports was how to efficiently test everyone - from players and coaches to officials, broadcasters and others involved with live compe...

I'm joined in this episode by Tim Russell, CEO of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association . The ITA is the governing body of college tennis, overseeing men's and women's varsity tennis at all levels -- NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College. To date, 45 tennis programs have been cut since the beginning of the pandemic -- a number that jumped from 28 when Tim...

This week I'm joined by James Coleman, a former student athlete at FSU who is currently the co-host of 1010XL's "The Sports Den" and a strength and conditioning coach. James joined me to discuss how black student athletes have begun using their voices to demand change - from calling out racist behavior by coaches to demanding fight songs, chants and building names be changed. J...