Is It Time For Your Athletic Department To Consider An Esports Team?

Whenever an off-the-map competition sells-out an NBA arena, athletic department officials should take notice, regardless of the league’s provenance in typical sport circles. The League of Legends World Championships, the seminal event on the esports calendar, filled the Staples Arena in Los Angeles this past week, no small feat in the world of sports entertainment. […]

Should You Invest Fan Oriented College Sports Apps?

As smartphone apps continue to grow as a primary means of data-gathering and communication among young people on the internet, colleges and universities must make sure they’re doing their part to stay in the forefront of technological advances. Major athletic powerhouses like Oregon already do this with advanced facilities on-campus. However, for schools to appear […]

New AD Hires Show There Is No Single Path to the Job

I was thinking the other day about the disparate ways athletic directors take to get to their eventual positions as leaders in higher education and thought it would be a fruitful enterprise to look at the backgrounds of a few new hires to see if any commonalities exist. This could help inform lower-level staff members […]

What Are An Athletic Department’s Responsibilities Around Recent Student-Athlete Protests?

49ers’ backup QB Colin Kaepernick’s recent actions during the national anthem have sparked an ongoing debate regarding respect of country, the nature of protests, and racial relations in the U.S. Many have spurned Kaepernick for what he is doing, while others have found inspiration not only in his message, but the method by which he […]

For Schools That Need Heightened Security, Athletic Departments Must Find Balance

Working through airport security today, I had a sense of déjà vu. When going to a recent professional sporting event with my wife, we were anxious if her small clutch would meet the requirements for entry to the stadium or if it had to be thrown away. Holding it against an outline printed on laminated […]

Taking the “L”: What is an Athletic Department’s Role Following a Loss?

In sports leadership, determining whether to speak and what to say to a group of student-athletes coming-off a loss is a tricky proposition. The approach varies from situation to situation; a heartbreaking last-second defeat might be treated differently than a beat-down at the hands of a superior opponent, both of which warrant a different reaction […]