It’s safe to say that there’s no part of sports business that’s as dynamic as college sports. That’s the polite way of saying it, anyway. There’s a bunch of other expressions that can be applied, and often are.

But think about it: conference realignment, NIL, the transfer portal, the House v NCAA decision, private equity investments… And this has all been in the last 5 years!

Sitting in the eye of this particular hurricane is this episode’s guest, John Cunningham, the Athletics Director for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Since joining the Bearcats in December, 2019, John has quite literally seen it all. COVID. The move to the Big 12. Launching NIL programs. And that’s just scratching the surface.

In our conversation, we talk about John’s journey from being Nebraska Cornhusker fan as a kid to sitting in the big chair at the University of Cincinnati’s athletic department. We also dive into his recent decision to move multimedia rights back in-house, what’s behind the success of that decision, his view of the role of private equity in college sports, the importance of mentorship, and much more.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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Mentioned in this episode:

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