1.question Podcast

Football Bowl Association Executive Director and former Sun Belt Commissioner Wright Waters checks back in with 1.Q to discuss this year's bowl landscape, developments around student-athletes skipping post-season play, the impact of ESPN Events and more. Waters also offers an interesting perspective on how the saga around the Fiesta Bowl back in the late 2000s impacted bowl leadership.

Tai Brown visits with Mike Sinquefield, Sr. Associate Athletic Director for Internal Affairs at TCU. Sinquefield has made the trek from Equipment Manager, to Director of Football Operations, and now a senior leadership post in athletics administration. He discusses servant leadership and valuing people as traits providing tremendous benefit to the leaders he has served.

Tai Brown visits with Dr. Brandon Martin, Athletic Director at California State University, Northridge. Dr. Martin talks in great depth about how his focus on professional development has helped him in his current leadership role. He also discusses how focusing on career enhancement amongst his staff has helped create a healthy buy-in within his department.

Tai Brown visits with Van Malone, Defensive Coordinator at Southern Methodist University, to discuss the aspects of preparing for the opportunity to interview for a head coaching position. Coach Malone, completing his third year as a DC, talks about his process of educating himself in the nuances of leadership from an assistant coach's perspective, as a coordinator, and possibly in the future, as a head coach.

Tai Brown visits with Dr. Linda Livingstone, President at Baylor University. In the first year of her presidency, Dr. Livingstone emphasizes how intercollegiate athletics can be transformative to an institution's culture. A former Student-Athlete herself, Livingstone addresses the aspects of being on a team that have provided guidance throughout her career.

Tai Brown visits with Dr. Robert B. Sloan, President at Houston Baptist University, to discuss the process of moving the athletics program from NAIA to NCAA Division I, and subsequently, starting a football program. Sloan touches on the variety of benefits of having visibility through athletics.

From Now On President & CEO Sue Thaden checks back in with 1.Q to discuss how her entrepreneurial background allows her to connect with leaders in college athletics. Sue also covers Patrick Lencioni's 'The Ideal Team Player' and how despite all the digital communication platforms available, she still relies upon a healthy dose of face-to-face conversations to effectively communicate with her team.

Raycom Media Camellia Bowl Executive Director Johnny Williams discusses the prime-time slot his game has this year on the first day of bowl play, the community-wide effort in Montgomery & the uniqueness of Cramton Bowl. Williams, who has plenty of department-side experience on his resume as the former AD at Troy and as a senior-leader at Alabama, notes the history of the city and the value it brings for student-athletes who engage in pre-game activities. "Overall, at the end of the day, these kids are student-athletes & this is part of their learning experience as college students."

The Pac-12 Hotline's Jon Wilner visited with 1.Q again to discuss his recent football oversight framework recommendations for the Pac-12 as the league continues to battle brand challenges. The timing of the conversation worked out quite well with the Pac-12 releasing its 2018 FB slate yesterday morning, allowing Wilner to provide context on his suggestions, as well as analyze improvements he sees in the '18 slate.

Contributing host Tai Brown stepped into the compliance world to speak with David Batson, Senior Associate Athletics Director, Athletic Compliance at Texas A&M. Batson talks about the way to say no to head coaches and athletic directors without suppressing creativity. When developing a culture of compliance, Batson speaks to education and continuously wanting to help coaches to be successful.

Dr. Ingrid Wicker McCree, Athletic Director at North Carolina Central University, visits @TaiMBrown on the 1.Question Podcast to discuss her success at hiring assistants as head coaches. She identifies empathy as one of the most important skills she looks for when evaluating current assistants for future leadership positions. Dr. Wicker McCree also touches on the importance of professional development experiences for her and her staff.

DePaul AD Jean Lenti Ponsetto covers a bunch of interesting ground on 1.Q in connection to her personal pre- & in-game agenda, some back story on how the new Wintrust Arena came to be, the benefit of driving more students & alumni to games, and how the new building will change her lens of analyzing success for her Men's & Women's Basketball programs.  

In this edition of the 1.Q, co-contributor Tai Brown visits with Long Beach State Athletics Director, Andy Fee. Only six months into the position, Fee talks about which aspect of the interview process was the most challenging to prepare for. He also talks about how his transition from working in facilities and events to development helped him prepare for his current position.

In this edition of the 1.Question Presidential Series, co-contributor Tai Brown visits with Youngstown State University President, Jim Tressel. Coach Tressel speaks on how his time as a national championship winning coach helped him when he assumed the presidency. He also addresses the challenges that coaching didn't prepare him for such as the sheer number of people, departments, students, etc. that fall under his leadership.

Turnkey Search Managing Director Gene DeFilippo touches on how the latest MBB-FBI developments could impact search firms and the search process for new Head Coaches in the near future. DeFilippo points to the "team" of leaders who together execute a search, also wonders if new tools will be introduced to the marketplace to more effectively look through the backgrounds of candidates.

Turnkey Search Managing Director, Gene DeFilippo, reviews how he assembled a team to help conduct an AD search when he sat in the chair, the hyper importance of confidentiality for search firms & all parties involved, the growth of firms talking to agents of HCs, the Nebraska hiring of Bill Moos, interacting with university presidents & chancellors, plus more.

Kansas State Athletic Director John Currie is the first ever 1.Q guest as he joins to review the reasons for fundraising and facility successes in Manhattan.

1.Q co-contributor Tai Brown visited with Jenn Strawley, No. 2 in command at University of Miami, to discuss her involvement in hiring new football coach, Mark Richt. Strawley touches on presenting candidates to the search committee, and helping Coach Richt with the on-boarding process.

Conference USA will move their basketball championships to the new Ford Center at the Star sports facilities owned in part by the Dallas Cowboys in Frisco, Texas. 1.Q co-contributor @TaiMBrown caught up with Commissioner Judy MacLeod to discuss the decision to move the game from a Conference USA campus to a third party facility.

Tai Brown visited with Glenn Wong of ASU Sports Law to discuss the state of law in college sports. A leading expert on the topic, Wong covers a number of items including recent happenings and pending cases that could have a tremendous effect on intercollegiate athletics.