http://www.riotsportsmarketing.com Craig Littlepage is the athletic director at the University of Virginia. Since he took the reigns in 2001 he has lead UVA athletics to success through his vision of "uncompromised excellence." In 2010, he lead UVA to a 3rd place finish in the prestigious Learfield Sports Director's Cup. His belief in the value of athletics to an institution offers sage advice to coaches and administrators at any level.
Jim: Why athletics?
Littlepage: There are two things we do in athletics better than anywhere else within our institutions...we bring people together and we develop relationships. These are not the most important things that go on within the universities but they do bring added value to the work done at the institution.
Consider the fact that a major college program in a given year will host more than a hundred events (sporting events, dinners, recognition programs, etc.). In an academic year literally hundreds of thousands of 'friends of the university', friends of athletics, alumni, students, local residents, parents, and corporate sponsors will come to together in Charlottesville to celebrate their affinity with UVA and UVA sports, you get a sense of the magnitude of how we 'bring people together'; so whether it's 60,00 for a football game, or several hundred for a volleyball game, no one has the ability to bring so many friends of UVA together at one time (that doesn't even take into consideration millions of people that will watch uva sports on TV, or the internet). Next consider the diverse make-up of these gatherings (students, alums, parents, faculty, tourists, and residents) and our unique ability to develop relationships among these groups is significant. This is why it is important for UVA, Notre Dame, Texas, UCLA, etc. to have top performing sports programs.
Jim: How does that look when the rubber meets the road? what specifically are you talking about? how does it bring people together more than just sitting next to someone in a hard chair for a couple of hours?
We can put the parent in a position to know the faculty member, we can have the student-athlete get to know the corporate sponsor, we can have the donor meet the coach, etc., etc. This is why so many cultivations by college presidents are done at major college athletics events.
For example, Professor Ed Burton brings students to athletics events at the same time he hosts executives from companies for whom he consults. He probably gets more students in the pipeline for jobs, internships, etc. as a result of the work he does around the University community, especially sporting events.
