Mike McBride interview

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This Q&A has been on the Trove for about a week. As I am doing here I did there asking for feedback. Feedback that Mike and the school couldn't see. Here they can. I ask you to be respectful in your comments. You are representing not only this board but the SHU community.

You might not agree with everything you are about to read and that's fine. It's the reason why this Q&A is so important. Mike is coming here with an open mind.

Before I post the first of many parts which will appear here daily I wanted to share my final thoughts from the Trove after reading the feedback there.........



I think some readers here are looking at this Q&A with the wrong perspective. This Q&A serves as an introduction to Mike McBride and in no way is a comprehensive interpretation of his future plans.

Mike has only been living in NJ for a couple of weeks and been on the job for about a month. He needs to learn the lay of the land, make connections with people and businesses. That doesn't happen overnight.

It's been a whirlwind for McBride and to think in that short of a time you are going to get some of the answers you want with specifics is not going to happen. And if it did it would have been foolish of McBride to do so.

The keys to someone in his position are hard work, background knowledge, experience and maybe most importantly the ability to listen and then amend your POV if it's in the best interest of Seton Hall.

Mike promised to come back here for another interview down the road so for me I love the fact we have someone at SHU so important in what he does but also so willing to not only reach out to the fanbase but to listen to their concerns as well.

 

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PirateCrew

The definitive source for all Seton Hall news.

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Mike McBride: The First Step​

Colin Rajala
Trove correspondent

Trove: Mike thank you for taking the time to talk with us and share some insights into the athletic department’s vision in the new NIL landscape. I thought it might be good to start off with getting the fanbase familiar with your main roles/responsibilities in the newly created position.

McBride: As deputy athletics director for revenue generation, NIL and strategic initiatives, my job can be broken down into three categories.

The first category is the traditional deputy athletics director role for external. I'm responsible for executing the overall strategy and building a holistic vision and making sure everyone is pulling on a rope together so we're delivering where we need to from an external standpoint . This would include Pirate Blue, marketing, ticketing, communications, licensing, and working with our partners like LEARFIELD and Amplify. So, a third of my responsibilities are focused on that traditional deputy AD role, which is vitally important for the success and operation of the athletic department.

The second component of my responsibility is going to be what Bryan [Felt] calls strategic initiatives. How I like to think of this component is I need to know what's coming around the corner and I have to have a strategy and or plan for the unknown. That could be a myriad of things, mostly unknown to us today. An example could be sports betting. College sports will need a plan of how to address it as it is likely to be part of the daily operations. A perfect example of this is alcohol sales. We can recall in the early 90’s it was extremely rare to have beer sales at a college event. Most interviewees said it would never happen and today it is prevalent, and most schools have even licensed their marks with alcohol manufacturers. There was a deputy AD somewhere in the country 25 years ago creating a plan on when and how they were going to sell beer. Strategic initiatives really is being prepared for the unknown.

The third component of my job is the one that everyone wants to talk about, NIL. Bryan thought it was so important that he put it in the title. I'm okay with everyone wanting to talk about that because it is the topic of the day and it will be into the foreseeable future because until there's some sort of commonality between all universities, it is going to be a topic that continuously comes up in the news cycle. For me, I like to keep things as simple as I possibly can so that I can focus on them and deliver wins on a consistent basis.

 

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Trove: I think that paints a pretty clear picture for the readers on the different hats you’re going to be wearing at Seton Hall. Now that you are settling into the role a bit, what are your short to intermediate term goals?

McBride: With me liking to keep things simple, I look at it as there is an internal component and an external component to my NIL role. My internal component will really focus on two main areas initially - compliance and marketing under compliance. There will be three focal points - governance, education and resources. Governance is exactly what it sounds like, there’s certain procedures and processes that are in place by the governing bodies that we must follow. So, I want to make sure that we're following those. Really that heavy lift internally is done by our compliance office, but I want to make sure that those processes are operationally easy and executable by our student athletes.

Now education is a bit of a broad term, but internally we're going to expand upon our create educational programs, a lot of this is in place already, but we're going to enhance the pieces that are in place and we're going to add components that are missing. But educational sessions could include financial literacy, contract negotiation strategies, market evaluations, and entrepreneurial preparedness. Guidelines prohibit athletics to help them navigate the actual NIL contract execution, but we will work on providing them the tools. We're going to educate them on how to position themselves from brand growth perspective and leverage analytics as well.

With resources, it’s all about what we as an athletics department can provide our student athletes to better prepare them. There's plenty of those things already in place, so we're going to make sure they're aware of them, make sure they're using them and then we're also going to enhance them.

The second part of the internal plan is marketing. We're going to help our athletes understand how to market themselves, what is their brand, what is their identity, how to position themselves with that which will then create NIL opportunities. We're going to market to the fan base the NIL opportunities to participate, and highlight the successes of our athlete NIL partnerships

Then comes the external side, which is what most people are aware of and what most fan bases are talking about. Externally, a lot of my work is going to be done on our NIL structures and our partners. As you are aware right now, Seton Hall really has two in play – Hall Hands On Deck and Hall Ball. How that is structured, I'll get to in a second, but those two entities are the two main players in our space right now, with Hall Ball taking the lead in executing NIL opportunities for our athletes. Also on the external side are current partners that we have in place that the public may or may not know about – Opendorse, Brandr, and COMPASS.

All partners will have a very specific role in helping our student athletes gain NIL opportunities.

 

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Trove: I appreciate you going in-depth there and touching on so many different aspects of what you are looking to accomplish. I think that the education component you talked about is crucial because at the end of the day, we’re talking about 18- to 21-year-old kids and it doesn’t matter how savvy or how much street smarts they have, the contracts and taxes and marketing and branding is a lot to handle on top of their athletics and schoolwork.

McBride: I often equate it to academics. In academics, we can help them prepare, we can teach them how to study, we can kind of guide them on what areas to focus on or how to get ready for a test. NIL is kind of the same idea, we want to arm our student athletes with all the resources that are available so that they become better equipped to handle opportunities as they are presented to them.

One more overview statement, that is probably good for people that are curious about how I am handling NIL at Seton Hall. When I got hired, I put together a personal timeline. For me, the month of June was discovery. I wanted to figure out, quite simply “Where's the restroom?” So, the last month was me just trying to figure out who is involved, trying to understand the difference between Hall Hands On Deck and Hall Ball. It was a lot of learning and figuring out and asking questions to get me grounded.

The month of July is all about research. I'm just pulling in as much information as I can from what I discovered in June from all the different areas. It's much, much more than what perhaps any individual might think of NIL. I think a lot of people think NIL is a student athlete signing autographs getting paid for that. Sure that's a very big piece of it, but there's so much more that goes on around it.

Now in late July/early August, I'm going to start creating a plan. That plan is going to be an insanely collaborative effort. All of the stakeholders will have a seat at the table, internal and external. What I hope to do is, and I'm not putting a set date on myself, but I'm hoping by September I'll have a plan that is executable with all of my internal stakeholders and all of my external stakeholders in agreement and aligned and happy about it.

When we roll that out, it will definitely be shared with the public in some capacity. I don’t know in what form it will come quite yet, it might be just an info sheet or you know it might be a sort of informational sessions meeting, but somehow, someway, everyone will know the plan.

When I got hired, the message I kept hearing was Seton Hall is behind, Seton Hall is behind. I don't think Seton Hall is behind and I don’t think Seton Hall has ever been behind [on NIL]. Now, I think telling the story may have not been executed the best. The things that have been in the works may not have been communicated in a way or via a platform that the masses were understanding, so we’ll make sure that the masses are informed and it will be easily available I want to make sure that the fan base understands we're active, we’re engaged and we're going to solve this ever-changing landscape of NIL.

 

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More tomorrow

 

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Trove: I think a lot of the concerns from the fanbase sort of has to do with their trepidation about falling behind and back into mediocrity that came after the height of P.J. Carlesimo’s tenure and before Kevin Willard brought the program back to relevance as a mainstay in the top half of the Big East.

McBride: That is totally understandable. Everyone has to realize that nobody is sitting on their hands. We’re kind of building the plane as we fly it, but hopefully we can get to a point where we're not building the plane while we're flying it and we have it built and it’s cruising along with a clear-cut plan, so we’re not reacting, but proactively planning ahead.

I also want to applaud the people here at the university, the athletic department, the individuals, the students themselves. They have done some great things already. As I'm pulling in this research and finding out what has been done, there's been some NIL related wins for this place.

What I will bring to the table is kind of an oversight, a focus and an overall kind of point person to make sure everyone understands what's happening, what we're doing and more importantly than anything, how everyone can help? The fan base wanting something greater than mediocrity is great, like that's what you want in a fan base. A passionate fan base, one that gets upset when we're not performing at a level that they expect, that's what you want. But what comes with that responsibility if you're a fan and you're upset that the teams are not or the organization is not performing at the level you expect, there's a responsibility to having that passion, that affinity for your school and that responsibility is stepping up and saying ‘hey, what can I do?’ The answer to what I can do is a myriad of things, it could be mentoring, it could be financial contribution, it could be networking, it could be rallying the fans to support, so there's a million things that the fans can do. To just issue concern is not enough, what we need is this kind of rabid fans, to participate in a positive manner and contribute to the progress.

I look forward to engaging with the fans more and letting them know what's happening here as the planning is finalized hopefully later this summer. If the fans can focus their passion and energy and come together it will make my job driving NIL forward that much easier.

NIL is brand new, its today’s topic of importance. Thirty-five years ago it was weight rooms, 25 years ago it was facilities, 20 years ago it was academics, now it’s NIL. Just like Seton Hall supporters have done every decade in supporting whatever the initiative was, this is the initiative today we need them to rally behind. If you believe in Seton Hall and you love Seton Hall, then you need to get behind this and help it in some way.

 

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Trove: I appreciate those sentiments. I kind of view the university community as being blue collar, so the idea of bringing together a lot of people to roll up their sleeves and push the school and its student athletes forward should resonate. I know you have held a variety of roles through the years from serving as chief revenue officer at Auburn, senior associate athletic director at Houston, executive for MGM’s entertainment and sports division and most recently with marketing firm Turba Sports. What have you’ve learned and experienced in those positions that will help you in this new role at The Hall?

McBride: That’s a fair question and I am going to be extremely biased in my answer because I think my background is a good mix between private and collegiate settings. Only a handful of universities have hired this role. They might have different names, but they've hired this role. I predict in the near future, whether that’s two years, four years, five years, who knows, but every school will have someone in the athletic department with oversight of NIL.

I personally believe that individual is probably not your traditional athletics department employee. It could be, but I think that position and that role is for someone that has some corporate experience, some brand experience, some marketing experience, some sales experience and it'd be big plus if they had athletics department experience. I'm going to have a great understanding of what corporate brand teams are tasked with, I'm going to have a great deal of knowledge on what marketing agencies are trying to accomplish and I'll be able to interact with them and I'll be able to speak their language. The corporate side of NIL is a longer play and it will have to play an important role to be sustainable in making a difference. I think a school like Seton Hall is in an advantageous position, because of where it is geographically and the resources that are available around us.

If you think about where the NIL opportunities are going to come from, you really have three buckets – what I call contributors because I don't call them donors; and then you have the community and then you have commercial or your corporate partners.

Your commercial bucket is going to be a longer-term play, but it's going to be a large amount of what comes in eventually. Your community play is vitally important because it is what connects your student athletes to the community and it's exactly what you think, it's local fans, local supporters and local businesses. The third bucket is what's in the news today and what is driving the train today, it’s your contributors, the current segment of the population that have made financial gifts to initiatives and campaigns for a while. While that is driving this NIL now, long term it's going to be a three- pronged approach.

 

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Part 2

"A Collaborative Effort"​

By Colin Rajala


Trove: It makes sense to me to not have all of your eggs or focus in one basket and I hope that the university’s geographic location is as advantageous for NIL opportunities as you think it can be. Given the constraints of the school from a resource and size perspective, I know that thinking outside the box can be invaluable. Interestingly enough, I had discussed with friends previously how I thought Seton Hall could leverage its proximity to New York City and the metropolitan area and brand itself as the locale for metro hoops over the likes of St. John’s and Syracuse. When you think about that sort of branding, less U.S. companies are focused on tying themselves to a particular region, but I thought it could be valuable with foreign companies, particularly with the Chinese basketball and sneaker brands like Li-Ning and Anta. Sure they have signed players like Dwayne Wade, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving, to some success but what better way to stake themselves in the U.S. basketball market than taking a more grassroots approach and connecting with the school that is the closest to the basketball mecca that is New York City? It will be interesting to see how the corporation NIL opportunities unfold.

McBride: I agree with you, let’s figure out a way to get foreign money investing in Seton Hall. I have a dry erase board in my office that is jam packed with notes and ideas. I fill it almost complete up every day, take a photo on my phone, erase and then start all over again the next day. Foreign investment was written up there a couple of days ago and something we will certainly pursue with the right connections. It’s all possible and it can all be part of the grand plan.

Now it's just about getting organized internally then focusing my time and efforts on priorities as they arise. I think we’re in good shape and we’re getting close. It’s getting everyone to understand what we can do, and what are we prohibited from doing as well as getting the coaches aligned and the staff aligned, so everybody understands what their roles and responsibilities are. If there’s confusion internally then there’s going to be confusion externally, so my priority is addressing the house first.

 

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More tomorrow

 

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Trove: I don’t have connections to those Chinese companies, but hopefully someone in the university community does. Now I am curious to hear what is the next priority for you beyond creating that internal alignment?

McBride: My next priority is going to be organizing Hall Hands on Deck and Hall Ball. How do I get those guys aligned and working together? I think I have a concept right now of what that could look like. I strongly believe that if an individual or a group of individuals stand up, raise their hand and say ‘I want to help’ or more importantly they start helping, then there is a place for them. It'll be very, very hard for me to ever say no to an individual or a group that has an NIL idea. I want to listen, and I want to understand and as long as everything checks all the boxes that need to be checked, I want them to have seat at the table and I want them to be part of this journey.

I’m figuring out how everyone plays in the same sand box together, and I think it is feasible. I’ll tell you, I'm not so sure consolidation into one entity is necessary. I know that is the current kind of wave with all these schools freaking out because they have multiple collectives. They're converging all of them into one, they're creating new entities or LLCs, but I’m not so sure that is something that we must do. Maybe it is exactly what we do ultimately, but that is what we'll arrive at after we finish this research period. I think that we can all live together, and we can all serve a purpose and we can all have a role to play that won’t be confusing to the fan base as long as its communicated properly.

 

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Trove: I don’t think it should be too difficult to inform the fans and community about the two distinct entities and the different roles they play regarding the school’s NIL initiatives. I did want to circle back on something you mentioned previously about getting everyone on the same page internally. Many of these coaches signed up for these roles prior to the new landscape and I would have to think that it is not something they have thought seriously about before recently. How do you sort of educate them and orient them to help them navigate this new era of college athletics? I would imagine it’s not very easy teaching an old dog new tricks, so to speak.

McBride: That is an absolutely phenomenal question, that is the type of question that people should be asking right now. That aspect of things makes this job a ton of fun for me. My job is not to change the way an individual performs or works. I think my responsibility is to challenge individuals to look at things through a different lens. If they're looking at a problem and let’s say it’s an NIL topic, and they're looking at it from the same lens that they've looked at all athletic department challenges in the past, that individual or this process probably won't be successful. But if they can look through the same problem through a different lens, they're probably going to arrive at a solution that's beneficial for everyone. There's never my way or the highway type philosophy, that’s not going to work. Going scorched earth never works. It's always going to be a collaborative effort, bringing together individuals, departments, teams to come to the solution to get it all worked out in the end.

There have already been individuals that have stepped up and said, ‘I want to X, Y and Z, lets figure out how can we do that.’ That is fantastic and shows why Seton Hall is not behind.

The great thing about this school beyond that passionate fan base is the staff here. They are amazing. Everyone loves Seton Hall; everyone is enthusiastic about the university. We don't get into this job to ‘get rich’ you get into this job because something pulls you to it, and most of them truly are servant leaders. They come in every day with the sole purpose of serving our student-athletes and when you have a team of individuals that leave their egos at the door, it’s amazing what you can accomplish. Seton Hall fans and Seton Hall student-athletes should be very appreciative of the team that has been put together here because everyone's very positive and ready to step up and do what they can.

 

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Trove: A lot of focus is paid on the coaches and the athletes and rightfully so, but at the end of the day the communal approach of ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ rings true because there are so many moving parts to get a project across the finish line.

McBride: You hit the nail on the head . This is all brand new. When they signed up for the jobs they signed up for, this was not even a possibility, and now it is just a new level of tasks. Our marketing team is going to be picking up new things, our communication teams will be picking up new things, our compliance team is going to have added responsibilities.

 

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Trove: Now in this new era of college athletics, there have been questions and concerns from fans on how the university should look to balance fundraising for Pirate Blue with building up its NIL coffers. What will be your approach to get as much out of our small but dedicated fanbase?

McBride: It's a great challenge, and quite simply it's a challenge that we must solve. There's no way around this. We have to be really resolved in our efforts to accomplish what we need to accomplish in order to have a successful NIL program. All the foundational blocks are there and now we just have to finish this plan and put it put it in action.

Donor fatigue is a real thing, and donor fatigue was a real thing before NIL and it'll continue to exist, whatever the next hurdle is. The cost of doing business is continuing to increase and the pressures to be able to find new revenue streams is challenging for all levels, whether you're the BIG 10, SEC or the MAAC.

Having worked in different levels of schools, I can tell you the financial challenges are the same at every single school, it's just that the decimal point is in a different place. The pressures and challenges are still there. There is no magic fairy dust on how you resolve the challenge of donor fatigue. All you can do is educate people about the opportunities that are in front of them, and then they are going to choose where they think their contributions are best served. I'm a little biased at the moment ; I think NIL is where their contributions will be best served, but if they if they think otherwise that’s alright. We just want their continued support. The university as a whole is very appreciative and thankful for the support from our membership, and it's up to me and my team to figure out how to position NIL as an opportunity that they should be supporting in addition to Pirate Blue, which helps our nearly 300 student-athletes.

 

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More tomorrow

 

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Part 3

"Let’s hang some more banners"​

By Colin Rajala


Trove: I couldn’t agree more with having multiple organizations that speak to different sets of the fanbase. As you look to combat donor fatigue among the various pools, I am curious to get your perspective on what you view as the minimum levels or thresholds to maintain NIL to remain competitive in the Big East?

McBride: I’ll tell you, if I had to rank what question I’ve been asked most about NIL, that would be number one and NIL is all everybody wants to talk about lately. It’s all about what number do we have to get to, what is the magical number?

 

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Trove: I can only imagine. I had to ask or else the fanbase might really have it out for me.

McBride: I totally get it. Every single time someone asks me that, the first thing I do is, because I’m curious how they would handle it, is ask what do you think that number should be? Colin, what do you think the numbers should be?

 

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Trove: That’s a fair exercise. I think the NIL budget should vary year-to-year. If you’ve got a younger team with sophomores and juniors that are exceeding expectations, like the team a couple of years ago with Myles Powell, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Jared Rhoden, guys that have a serious ability to go somewhere professionally, then you’re going to have to pony up above your typically yearly budget for continuity sake because you can’t let any of those guys walk and the school and program miss out on their successes. I think you have to capitalize on those team and individual successes and use them to push the program forward.

My ideal vision of the program also has Shaheen picking up younger guys like high school and prep school kids as well as younger transfers that may be less heralded. I like to think that those types of players will not be commanding as much from the NIL budget immediately, so those years when rosters are young will be less expensive than when you’re a serious threat to advance in the tournament. I think that is a long-winded way of getting to the idea that for the NIL budget to be competitive, it has to be at least at the median amount of the major conference schools on a yearly basis with the school willing to take some risks and bet on its student-athletes when they are positioned for success.

McBride: I think that answer is as solid an answer that anybody can give. The truth is, there is no number. I couldn't give you an answer because every week everything is changing. If you listen to the news and you listen to the message boards, we're going to need an astronomical number because all these schools are providing astronomical NIL opportunities to these athletes. Here's my personal opinion : I find it very hard to believe anything you hear or read. I find it extremely hard to believe what the third - party NIL companies are saying because they're only going to say something that benefits them. I find it hard to believe what the student - athlete agents are saying because they're only going to say something that benefits them. I find it hard to believe what the schools are saying because they're only going to say something that benefits them. Everyone is only going to leak or report information that benefits them and until there is a clearinghouse or a way to monitor the country's NIL market, in my opinion, you just can't believe or trust anything you see or hear.

There’s probably truth to every number you hear, and there's probably some stretching of the truth to every number you hear. Sometimes they inflate it, sometimes they keep it depressed for whatever goal and objective suits them. I honestly don't understand why anyone would ever say a number. Like what's the benefit? Because then it's just going to be used against you. So, the original question is what is the number that Seton Hall athletics needs for men’s basketball? I don’t know but we will have a plan.

 

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Trove: And its going to change over time based on market dynamics. You said before that it’s still in the early phases and I think it remains to be seen where the playing field levels off. For every success story like Miami’s first Elite Eight in school history last year, there will be the opposite with funds spent on an underperforming group of teenagers/young adults.

McBride: I can promise you this, Seton Hall Athletics will work with our NIL partners to find a plan that is executable against whatever dollar amount we have in place. Some of these numbers reported are not applicable when adding football into the equation. The focus should be on our conference and basketball first programs when discussing a sample set.

 

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Trove: Sure, that is apples to oranges.

McBride: When you look at apples to apples, you’re hearing numbers anywhere from $500,000 to $5 million, so there's your range. There's truth to that, and I think it is somewhere in there, but I kind of liked your answer. Maybe your answer is the best answer. We can tell the readers that your answer is what we’re going to go with [laughs]. At the end of the day, whatever the amount is, we will have a solid plan for it.

 

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Tomorrow, the conclusion.

Then I look forward to feedback from our readers.

 

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Trove: Well, let’s hope they’re on the same page as me and don’t come gunning for me. After NIL, what are the next most important pieces for a current high schooler or transfer to decide where they play? Is there anything Seton Hall can or should be emphasizing to them?

McBride: That is a great question and while I won’t speak to what makes Seton Hall special and distinct per se since I am still so new here, but in general in my previous life, anytime I'm speaking to a high school athlete and the topic of where to go comes up, I think it’s important that they are choosing an institution that serves them best and serving them best is going to be defined by their own personal goals and objectives. I think that when you start listing out all the goals and objectives of the common student-athlete coming out of high school, or even a transfer portal, Seton Hall aligns very well. I like our chances a lot; Seton Hall checks a lot of boxes.

 

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Trove: I think it even goes back to the aspect of donor fatigue that you were mentioning before. These schools have these big pools of capital and donors and they can throw money at kids to come play for them, but who’s to say that these programs don’t experience some fatigue and issues down the line when the program underperforms and the results don’t line up with the compensation.

McBride: I think if you support Seton Hall Athletics, you need to support Seton Hall Athletics in whatever the current initiatives are, and if NIL is the priority today, then that's where your support is needed. If there is frustration on ‘results’ then support it even more, lets figure out a solution together.

 

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Trove: Now you mentioned previously the need for a clearinghouse to monitor the NIL marketplace and I am curious what other regulations or guardrails like a salary cap you would like to see in place to even the playing field?

McBride: Regulations are important, but nobody has a crystal ball, and no one knows what's going to happen next or where this is going to land. All everyone can do is provide input and information and support those that are in decision making capacities, whether that’s NCAA, state, or federal levels. If you forced me to give you an answer, I think a few things are probably inevitable in the future. I think there'll be some sort of regulation and clearinghouse for representation of student-athletes. I think there'll be some sort of regulation and clearinghouse for deals that are executed. I think there'll be some sort of centralized sharing of information, for example, you might not know that it was “Bill Smith” that had the $20,000 autograph session, but there'll be a database that schools, collectives and student-athletes can enter and say, ‘What is my market value? What should I charge for a social media post?’ You know, right now it's the wild, wild west, so I think there'll be some sort of central clearinghouse to where databases are created for everyone to understand.

It took a very long time for that to occur in the private sector to solve it on the sponsorship and marketing side of sports business. There was really no clear understanding to know what naming rights were worth or what a sponsorship was worth, but now it's kind of centralized and data is accessible. You can go look it up and you can type in criteria, and it'll generate a value. So, I think something along those lines is going to happen soon enough. It's hard right now because there's so many players in the space and there's no managing body, so nobody's sharing their information, nobody wants the other people to know what's going on. While that should be in the near future, long-term this has to come in house. That's just a personal opinion. You see it happening in Texas and Arkansas already, and I think a third state [Missouri] just approved it.

 

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Trove: With NIL being in its infancy, it seems like a bit of a wait and see approach, see what works, what doesn’t work and what the shortcomings are before some of the larger players, whether that’s the NCAA, state or federal government, come in and create regulations and guardrails to make the playing field equitable.

Now you mentioned before that it was difficult to pinpoint what differentiates Seton Hall because of your newness still, but I wanted to see if you could provide some insights into what about the university and its student-athletes you will be looking to emphasize when it comes to NIL and marketing efforts?

McBride: I don't know if I'm qualified to answer that with roughly 30 days on the job, but I did choose Seton Hall. I chose Seton Hall because of its geographical location, because of the mission statement that the university has, because of people that they have surrounded this campus. So, I have to assume that those are the same sort of things that are attractive to our student-athletes and our student body and would align with what would attract NIL opportunities. It's a phenomenal academic institution that has great pride in their sports and we've had great success in our sports. Yes, I know that the fan base would like to see a great level of success year in and year out, which is fabulous, but I think that if they took a second and took a step back and looked out my office window, they would see all of these banners on the wall of all the conference titles and various championships they've won and they would take great pride in it.

We should ask our student-athletes that question, I am sure that information exists.

 

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Trove: I think the aspect of there being a variety of factors that make the school attractive can speak volumes as opposed to the school resting on the laurels of just one factor.

McBride: I guess the proper answer would be, why wouldn’t you choose Seton Hall? I can't think of a reason not to choose Seton Hall.

 

[Halldan1]

Trove: Mike, we touched on a lot and you gave me plenty of insights and perspective to relay to our fans, but I wanted to leave you by giving you an opportunity to speak directly to the fanbase and university community and share whatever message you wanted to get across.

McBride: I think whether you're an individual, a group or a company and you're interested in supporting our NIL initiatives and getting involved in some capacity, whether it's financial or otherwise, you have really three direct contacts that you should leverage and there's no right or wrong answer in which of those three you go and contact. I’m in the athletic department, and there's Hall Hands On Deck and finally there's Hall Ball.

My parting note would be to encourage all of our Seton Hall community to get involved and support our initiatives, of which NIL is one of them. Get behind what we’re trying to accomplish here and support these student-athletes.

Let’s hang some more banners.

 

[Halldan1]

Pls post feedback knowing that Mike will read it and reply in our next interview.

 

[Halldan1]

Guys, this has been a major topic of conversation all ssummer. Here's your chance to both comment and make suggestions to Mike.

He's reading this and wants your feedback.

 

[thehall07]

Way too many hats he is wearing IMO but with limited funds I get it. I like his 90 day plans and the fact that he admitted that the communication has been poor.

 

[radecicco]

He seemed to say that if you are going to direct funds toward the program, send them to where the current need is greatest. With the new practice facility funding nearly completed (of course more money is always wanted), obviously he is telling donors to support NIL.

The proof is in the pudding. Let’s see what is accomplished over the next several months. The communication is welcome.

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove

Mike, McBride is 1 1/2 months into a 3 month plan/strategy development phase. Impatient fan that I am, that seems like some lost time. But he‘s the guy so we’ll have to see what happens next.

Mike makes a strong point: Being a passionate fan carries responsibility. Sure we can complain and criticize, no problem there. But we also have the responsibility to do something. To his credit he laid out three or four areas to participate, contributing $$$ of course has the most immediate impact.

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove


Having been a brand marketeer for over four decades, my takeaway from reading the first piece is the need to establish one overarching brand that encompasses all NIL efforts and initiatives. Great brands need a reason to believe and a reason to belong - two elements that are so critical in this new world Setonia hoops/sports finds itself in. Establishing the brand is probably the biggest challenge that Mike and team faces. Needs to be one brand not multiple ones. Believing in the goals of this "Setonia NIL brand" leads to wanting to belong - i.e. donations, support and involvement.

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove

Good start to letting the Contributors know where we currently stand and where we are going. Would love it to be further along as we are in the midst of a major NIL fundraiser, but I am hopeful that everything he says is a step in the right direction.

Good open dialog is something that has been lacking at SHU for years( Alumni reach for instance) so hopefully we start to see a more transparent University in their communications with Alumni/Contributors etc.

Looking forward to parts 2 and 3

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove

It all sounds good so far, with the exception of Mike's insistence that 'we are not behind' and some great things have already been done in the NIL area. Not buying that...it sounds like unwarranted praise for his bosses. But, politically, I can see why he'd say that.

Overall, I am cautiously optimistic that we are finally on a good path. But calling this a 'home run hire' is simply premature. I'd wait for the home run to sail over the wall before going that far.

He didn't emphasize it much, but I love the fact that part of his strategic charter is to stay on top of/anticipate trends and potential changes in the athletic landscape. That's an area where my beloved Hall has almost always trailed the field.

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove


Great insight and first step introducing himself and his vision. Even from this interview seems well spoke, driven, and prepared for what’s ahead.

Two things stuck out: First, notion that perhaps SHU wasn’t communicating the best way possible and boy, that’s always been an issue there. Secondly, the importance of this role in this day and age and the idea that it’s probably best suited for someone who isn’t the conventional college athletics department type. Definitely needs to be more dynamic than that traditional type.

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove

Credit to Mike McBride for being transparent and coming prepared for this interview. As he noted, Seton Hall often hasn’t been the best at getting ahead of the narrative and articulating their message, and not just on NIL. It’s refreshing to see a polished and seemingly very innovative individual is now taking the helm.

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove

I've been impressed with Mike M from the moment we first spoke in early June. He spent over an hour getting to know HHOD and seeking my opinion on how I felt our NIL program could be successful. He's an excellent listener, and is seeking similar input from all parties. He spent an additional two plus hours with our HHOD founding members on Monday, seeking our input and laying out much of what he's stated in part 1 of this interview.

Mike appreciates the efforts that HHOD, Hall Ball and others have made to help SHU succeed with NIL. As stated in the interview, "all of the stakeholders will have a seat at the table." Mike is keenly aware of the strengths of each party involved, and will deploy each party in a fashion that will guarantee the greatest success.

I'm going to defend Mike's opinion that we're not behind on NIL. We compare ourselves with the relatively few universities that have hit the ground running, and forget that we've never had the resources that all of these well funded universities have. Our perception is the result of ineffective communication, something that has been an issue for a long time. Sha had the resources to recruit costly transfers, at the expense of exhausting our NIL pot. His decision was to recruit kids that want to play for SHU and go into the 2024 transfer season well funded. It's not about putting together a successful team for one season, it's about setting ourselves up for continued success.

We're in the midst of a $350K matching campaign with Hall Ball, which ends on Labor Day. HHOD hopes to have the backing of the university by September, at which time we'll introduce a new fundraising opportunity. These two initiatives, if successful, will put us in excellent position come April 2024. Mike M eloquently pointed out that our success is tied to the Seton Hall community's ability and willingness to contribute, our success is in your hands. Mike's plan to develop corporate relationships in the next couple years will take some of the burden off of alumni/fans, for now it's up to us to get this train rolling.

I have 20+ years experience in marketing and sales, Mike M is the real deal.

GO PIRATES!!!

One caveat - Mike's success will depend on the administration's willingness to trust his ideas.

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove

I just spoke to someone high up in our administration a few minutes ago. He knows Mike McBride well from their initially dealing between Under Armour and Seton Hall. He told me personal stories I won't repeat here but when I told him my initial impression in dealing with Mike is that the school hit a home run he could not agree more. He absolutely sang his praises and coming from this individual who is incredibly accomplished both at the school and in the business sector that is high praise indeed.

 

[thehall07]

Some comments from the Trove

It all sounds good so far, with the exception of Mike's insistence that 'we are not behind' and some great things have already been done in the NIL area. Not buying that...it sounds like unwarranted praise for his bosses. But, politically, I can see why he'd say that.

Overall, I am cautiously optimistic that we are finally on a good path. But calling this a 'home run hire' is simply premature. I'd wait for the home run to sail over the wall before going that far.

He didn't emphasize it much, but I love the fact that part of his strategic charter is to stay on top of/anticipate trends and potential changes in the athletic landscape. That's an area where my beloved Hall has almost always trailed the field.

this is great

 

[Halldan1]

Some comments from the Trove

Very good interview. It seems as if Mike has answered a question all of us had about where to donate the money. I still donated more to PB than to NIL, but i do agree that our athletic success is going to be more directly related to NIL.

I still think the biggest hurdle is donors not supporting the toxic environment of NIL. I would love to get Mike's take on that. I just really struggle with donating money towards it.