By Jason Hill (’10)

Last month, three Class of 2010 members (Jason Hill, Chance Jones, and Christina Wright) attended the NCAA Convention.  Held from January 13th through January 16th at the Marriott Marquis and Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, the event provided great learning opportunities for members of the association.

For the attending OU graduate students, the convention provided several great networking opportunities.  On Wednesday evening, Jones and Wright attended a reception at the convention site.  This reception allowed Wright to reconnect with many of her colleagues and friends from her NCAA internship experience, while Jones was able to meet and network with many new contacts. 

In addition, one of the highlights of the convention was an OU sports administration “friends and family” dinner, hosted by Ellerbe Becket.  Many alumni attended the dinner, including Steven Rackley (Class of ’86, AD at University of Findlay), Jim Dafler (Class of ’73, AD at Westminster College), and Brian Brantley (Class of ’08).  This event allowed alumni and current students to connect and share great stories about past and present MSA experiences.

The convention also provided many learning opportunities in the form of educational sessions.  These sessions were held throughout the convention schedule, and provided insights on specialized topics of interest to the membership.  Of particular note, Jones and Wright attended a session on online trends, which focused on the use of online technologies (e.g. social media) and its effect on intercollegiate athletics.  Meanwhile, Hill attended a session on managing intercollegiate athletics, which included athletic directors and senior administrators discussing leadership and management aspects of their athletic departments.

In all, the convention was a great experience for attendees from the OU MSA program.  We would like to thank the alumni who spent time with us during the week, and send a special thanks to Jon Niemuth and Brett Fuller from Ellerbe Becket for hosting our alumni happy hour and dinner.