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SBJ College: Election Day


It’s going to be a long night. Maybe more than one long night. But one of the really compelling storylines on Election Day was the rally staged by college basketball coaches to keep the gyms dark so that athletes had time to go vote. The National Association of Basketball Coaches reported today that more than 1,000 coaches signed a pledge to support college athlete voter engagement, which cumulatively impacted 8,000 athletes and helped them make voting a priority.

Here is what's cookin' on campus.

  

STORIES FROM AROUND U.S. CONNECT ATHLETES, ELECTION DAY

 

ACC COMMISSIONER SEARCH SLOWED BY COVID ISSUES

  • The search for the next ACC commissioner has crept to a much slower pace than the conference’s leaders had hoped because of how much time university chancellors and presidents are spending on COVID-related issues on their campuses, industry sources say.

  • Turnkey Search and Ventura Partners are working with the conference’s 20-person search committee to narrow the field of candidates. ACC presidents and chancellors ultimately must approve the hire. Retiring commissioner John Swofford is scheduled to stay on the job through June, if necessary, although that is not expected.

  • The ACC’s search committee is seeking candidates with a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, ranging from college administration to sports media, insiders say, and while the search has narrowed its focus from more than 70 names on the original list to fewer than 10, the process remains slower than initially hoped.

 

 

MAGNUS SHARES HIS PROFESSIONAL INSIGHTS

  • ESPN exec Burke Magnus recently appeared on Vince Thompson’s "MeltU" podcast and offered his thoughts on a range of topics, such as following his passion into sports TV. Magnus had been out of Holy Cross, where he was a history major, for seven years by the time he got hired at ESPN for $21,000 a year. “I was starting my career over in many ways,” Magnus said. “I took a tremendous pay cut, but that’s where I wanted to be.”

  • The key to professional growth in sports media or any profession is versatility, Magnus said. He runs into a lot of recent college grads who are locked into a vision for how their career is going to go. Goals are fine, Magnus said, “but you can’t hesitate to deviate from the plan” when the right opportunity comes along.

  • For Magnus, that opportunity was motorsports. He admittedly didn’t know anything about NASCAR, IndyCar or NHRA, “but it was an opportunity to step up and take on more responsibility. Don’t rule anything out.”

  • Magnus has thrived at ESPN for 25 years, in part, because of the culture there. Late SEC Commissioner Mike Slive once told Magnus: “You guys are Hertz, but you think you’re Avis. You’re the leader, but you behave like the insurgent.” Magnus considered that a compliment on the highest level.

 

STRICKLIN TAKES UNIQUE PATH TO AD OF THE YEAR

  • Scott Stricklin's route to the AD chair was unlike that of most of his counterparts. SBJ’s AD of the Year spent 15 years working in media relations at Auburn, Tulane, Baylor and Kentucky before landing the top job at Mississippi State in 2010, and subsequently moving to Florida to be chief Gator in 2016.

  • SBJ research director David Broughton compiled this list of D-I ADs whose paths included communications, media relations or sports information stops:

 

D-I ADs WITH UNDERGRAD DEGREE IN COMMUNICATIONS (OR SIMILAR FIELD)
AD
CURRENT SCHOOL
AD
CURRENT SCHOOL
Trev Alberts
Nebraska-Omaha
Gerald Harrison
Austin Peay State
Brian Barrio
UMBC
Shawn Heilbron**
Stony Brook
Renee Baumgartner
Santa Clara
Mike Hill**
Charlotte
Mike Bohn
USC
Matt Hogue*
Coastal Carolina
Mike Buddie
Army
Philip Hutcheson
Lipscomb
Greg Burke
Northwestern State
Tim Leonard
Towson
Mike Cragg
St. John’s
Scott Leykam
Portland
John D'Argenio
Siena College
Greg McGarity*
Georgia
Troy Dannen
Tulane
Ed McLaughlin
VCU
Bryan Felt
Seton Hall
Rachelle Paul
Saint Peter's
Sean Frazier
Northern Illinois
Chrissi Rawak
Delaware
Simon Gray*
Niagara
Todd Stewart
Western Kentucky
Brian Hardin*
Drake
Steve Watson
Loyola (Ill.)
NOTES: * = Journalism degree. ** = Radio/TV/motion pictures degree
Download the
D1 ADs Who Studied Communications
D-I ADs WITH COMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA EXPERIENCE
AD (SCHOOL) MEDIA RESUME
Omar Banks (Campbell) Media intern, N.C. State
Brian Barrio (UMBC) Sports information intern, Boston College
Chuck Burch (Gardner-Webb) Assistant director/director, sports information, Liberty
Bill Chaves (North Dakota) SID, Quinnipiac
Brian Hardin (Drake) Student assistant in sports marketing and information, Marquette; sports information intern, Loyola (Chicago); media relations, Bears; director of football media relations, Notre Dame
Dave Heeke (Arizona) Associate AD, marketing and media relations, Oregon
Mike Hill (Charlotte) Director of marketing and media relations, Blockbuster Bowl
Matt Hogue (Coastal Carolina) Assistant SID and "Voice of the Chanticleers" on the Chanticleer Sports Network, Coastal Carolina
Scott Leykam (Portland) Athletic media relations and development, Stanford; professor, St. Mary's in the Department of Communication
Ian McCaw (Liberty) Sports information, marketing and external affairs, Maine
Greg McGarity (Georgia) Assistant SID, Georgia
Ed McLaughlin (VCU) Director of media relations, Hockey East Conference
DeWayne Peevy (DePaul) SID, University of Montevallo; SEC media relations
Greg Seitz (Jacksonville State) Sports information assistant director/director, JSU
Todd Stewart (Western Kentucky) WKU Associate AD, communications and media relations; commissioner for communications, Sun Belt Conference; executive director of communications and media relations, Cleveland Browns; assistant director, PR, Indianapolis Colts; graduate assistant, sports information, Tennessee
John Wildhack (Syracuse) At ESPN for 36 years, most recently as VP, programming and production
Download the
D1 ADs With Communications Experience

 

SPEED READS

  • Wisconsin football will miss its second game of the season after the program could not get a COVID outbreak under control ahead of a matchup with Purdue. If the team misses another game, it will not be eligible for the Big Ten Championship this season. In Madison, Jim Polzin writes under the header: "What Went Wrong At Wisconsin: Daily COVID-10 Testing Was Supposed To Protect Big Ten Football From Outbreaks." Badgers AD Barry Alvarez today said: "I felt we were doing the right things in getting our players isolated. We had a good plan. I was hopeful we could corral this and be where we wanted to be. I was never over-confident. This virus has been too fickle."

  • Some promotions at the Big East Conference officeChris Schneider has been named Executive Associate Commissioner for Sport Administration & Championships; Tracy Ellis-Ward has been named Senior Associate Commissioner for Women’s Basketball and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer; and Katie Willet has been named Senior Associate Commissioner for Compliance, Governance & Student-Athlete Development.

  • Ohio State was once again on top for college football viewership this past weekend, notes SBJ's Austin Karp. The "Saturday Night Football" matchup with Penn State averaged 6.53 million viewers on ABC. That figure is 55% higher than the average for Big Ten games on ABC last season. The No. 2 college game of the weekend was ABC's noon ET window featuring Clemson's comeback win over Boston College (4.38 million). For the "Big Noon Saturday" window on Fox, Michigan State-Michigan averaged 4.22 million viewers (No. 3 last weekend), down 5% from Fox' Big Ten average last season.

  • Those eager to see SDCCU Stadium (formerly Qualcomm Stadium) imploded "will be disappointed to know it will not be dynamited and crumble onto itself in a cloud of dust," notes the San Diego-Union Tribune. “We really looked at that, but those air quality standards make it such that it made more sense to take it down in a different way,” said San Diego State Associate VP/Mission Valley Development Gina Jacobs. “So it will be wrecking-ball style over implosion." Jacobs said the stadium will be taken down “piece-by-piece” and that likely won’t be completed until nearly mid-2021, with the school's new football venue set for completion in September 2022.

 

 

 

 

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Something on the college beat catch your eye?
 Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).