Podcast Alert: Todd Stansbury
Georgia Tech Director of Athletics – Todd Stansbury – joins AJ Maestas to discuss trending topics in college athletics, the challenges of running a modern athletic department, the future of the NCAA, and more.
Details:
2:05 – Todd’s career path
17:10 – Changes to collegiate athletics
23:35 – The NCAA’s evolving role
32:20 – Fundraising at Georgia Tech
35:15 – Georgia Tech’s MMR deal with Legends
38:55 – Rapid Fire Questions
- More info on Radiochain – the startup founded by 3 Georgia Tech swimmers.
- Link to GTAA Ventures – the VC Fund for Georgia Tech Athletics
- Jenny Moore – the former Georgia Tech athlete who became a fighter pilot.
- Shane Kimbrough -astronaut and honorary Georgia Tech letter winner
As mentioned in the episode, below are some pictures from Todd’s 18-month sabbatical with his wife, Karen.
Transcript
+^[00:00:00] Todd Stansbury: The ultimate goal is how do you provide opportunities and allow student athletes to have similar freedoms to everybody else, but at the same time, protect the collegiate model. And I think one of the issues that we have. Is we’ve devalued, the actual education, the opportunity.
[00:00:47] AJ Maestas: Hello and welcome to the navigating sports business podcast. I’m your host AJ Maestas. Founder of Navigate, a data-driven consulting firm, guiding major strategies and decisions in sports and entertainment. We started this podcast [00:01:00] hoping to share the interesting stories and experiences of the amazing people we get to work with at Navigate.
And even though they’re visionaries. Famous in many instances, their true stories aren’t often heard since they’re not on the playing field. Our hope is you get to know them better and learn from them as we have
Today, I’m happy to be joined by Todd Stansbury, Director of Athletics at Georgia Tech. Hey Todd, how are you doing?
[00:01:26] Todd Stansbury: Doing great. Good to be here.
[00:01:28] AJ Maestas: Yeah. I’m glad to have you here. I’m grateful. This is, this is fun. I think all our conversations are fun, at least in my mind. So it’s nice. It’s nice to be able to share one with people.
Yeah. By the way, do you remember how we first met?
[00:01:41] Todd Stansbury: I believe it was, we were introduced by Zach Lassiter introduced us. I think when I was at UCF, correct?
[00:01:48] AJ Maestas: That’s right. That was the first time we worked together. Yeah. Yeah. We become friends in my mind in a place where it’s like, you know, that starts to become kind of fuzzy, but we owe it to Zach.
Who’s about to be an athletic director. [00:02:00] So , very exciting for him. Just for fun, just for young people listening. So many young people dream of being the team president or an athletic director. I’d love for you to share sort of, was that the goal and intention, or was this just an outcome and how did you actually get into this seat?
Which you’ve been in athletic director at UCF, obviously, as we discussed where we had the chance to work together with some pretty transformational stuff and Oregon State, and now Georgia Tech, your alma mater.
[00:02:25] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. And actually my first AD job was at East Tennessee State University. A long time ago, but that’s where, that was the first time I got in the chair.
[00:02:38] AJ Maestas: Wow. And you left that for.
[00:02:41] Todd Stansbury: Oregon State as a deputy. Yeah.
[00:02:44] AJ Maestas: Right. Well then four time athletic director. Is this getting old and boring?
[00:02:50] Todd Stansbury: Never yeah. Things have definitely changed since I was in Johnson city. That’s [00:03:00] for sure.
[00:03:01] AJ Maestas: Karen loved that she loved it there. Right? Because that was her.
She grew up with your wife. Karen grew up in South Carolina, she went to a school that was a member, right?
[00:03:10] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. Well, she went to Presbyterian College, but she grew up in the Southern conference around, you know, Furman and Wofford and App State. She grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. So she was just really, really familiar with that league and the people associated with it.
So yeah, she did love.
[00:03:28] AJ Maestas: Yeah, she did. Good. Good. So you were saying, how does a young person follow in your footsteps?
[00:03:32] Todd Stansbury: It would be hard to follow in my footsteps just because I did not take the traditional path that you see people take today. And in fact, as a former student athlete, I didn’t realize that this was even a business. To me, the business side of athletics was the playing and the coaching, and having just graduated from Georgia Tech. The last thing I wanted to do was live in a dorm room, make a thousand bucks a [00:04:00] month and, you know, be a grad assistant or whatever. When all my classmates teammates were going to corporate America or wall street or real estate development or whatever.
So I started my career as a, as a banker at the time Citizens and Southern national bank here in Atlanta. And it wasn’t until a couple of years into my career. I got a call from Georgia Tech and said, hey, would you be interested in being an academic advisor or the academic advisor for the football team.
[00:04:33] AJ Maestas: So you were a good student when you were in school then?
[00:04:34] Todd Stansbury: I was a good student. They figured I played football. I graduated from Georgia Tech with a decent GPA that I’d be able to help other student athletes Navigate through Georgia Tech. And so that’s actually how I got into this business. And quite frankly, did not see myself being athletic director . Because Homer Rice was my athletic director and I was like, there’s no way I could [00:05:00] ever be a Homer Rice.
So it wasn’t really, until a colleague of mine became an athletic director that I thought, wow, that might be possible. So I was kind of late. I’d already been in my career 10 years or so before the idea of that being a possibility even entered my mind.
[00:05:20] AJ Maestas: Well, why couldn’t you have been a Homer how’s that not possible in your mind at that time?
[00:05:25] Todd Stansbury: Well, Homer in my mind, he actually probably transformed intercollegiate athletics. He made it a profession, just a visionary and kind of one of those guys that you were just in awe of especially I was a student athlete and while he was here as the AD in fact, we started here at the same time, me as a freshman, him as the athletic director.
And then I was fortunate enough to work for him as assistant AD for academics, but I couldn’t envision myself ever, you know, being somebody like Homer Rice. [00:06:00] So it wasn’t until I saw other mere mortals become athletic directors that I realized it might be a possibility.
[00:06:07] AJ Maestas: That is the opposite. I think it was like, we just did a gen Z study, Ally Corbin and our team, you know, like that’s what Navigate does.
Right. And so we’re trying to get on that front edge of future of fandom, Pathway to fandom, all that stuff. Anyway, gen Z either about 25, 26 years down to about age 12 right now, you know, they very much are ready for the end now . Today, in fact, I think it’s the first generation that the top answers on what they want to be in the future is rich and famous.
So just for the young people who are in college, you probably are gen Z members that I love that you’re 10 years in before you even see the vision of it being realistic or no.
[00:06:45] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. They’re way ahead of the game.
[00:06:48] AJ Maestas: You did something you mentioned, maybe your path was maybe a random walk, right? That someone couldn’t quite follow in your footsteps.
One of my favorite stories to share with people is that you and Karen, when it was pretty clear that people saw pretty [00:07:00] significant future for you. You’re maybe mid thirties. If you just stay in your job, you took off and spent two years traveling the world. I don’t know if you mind sharing a bit about that.
You know, do you think it derailed your career? Did it make you better? Why’d you do it?
[00:07:13] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. So yeah, when Karen and I were mid thirties, I was already an assistant athletic director at Georgia Tech. She is a exercise physiologists for one of the top orthopedic surgeons in town. We decided to get married, resigned from our jobs and put backpacks on and travel around the world for two years, it’s just, you know, a crazy dream I had had since a little kid that I wanted to travel around the world.
And for whatever reason we decided the time was now. So assistant AD from Georgia Tech, she married an assistant AD from Georgia Tech. And a month later, we were both homeless with everything we own that we were carrying on our backs, but. Most incredible experience. We had one way tickets [00:08:00] to London, England, and I went through Europe, the middle east, east Africa, India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand.
And then we came home. Yeah. And of course everybody, or I won’t say everybody, but most people thought we were crazy thought that we were giving up our careers. Obviously a lot of people want to get in athletics and I would was in a great spot being a young assistant athletic director at Georgia Tech and that I would have trouble getting back in and all those kinds of things.
And the crazy thing is, is that when we did come back, there were, I think three, three jobs open in the country that I felt fit my skill set. They were assistant associate ADs for academic support, which is what I did at Georgia Tech. And I got every interview. And two of the three jobs I was offered the job.
And the first question in each of those interviews was you [00:09:00] got to tell us about this trip. I left Georgia Tech as an assistant athletic director, and my first job, which ended on coming back, which was at the University of Houston, was as an associate athletic director. So I left for almost two years and I came back and I got a promotion and a raise.
Three years after that, I was an athletic director at East Tennessee State. So, you know, it all worked.
[00:09:25] AJ Maestas: Yeah. I mean, obviously this throws, this throws a wrench in all the sort of plans and beliefs that people have about, right? Like the bath you have to be on and don’t slip. And by this timeline, by this age, Tim Ferriss, who’s written a few books, you know, and he has a podcast and whatever you might recognize that name, he put out.
I can’t remember what form, but I think he put out a sort of a chart that shows what people perceive risk as when they face the idea of traveling the world for a year. And what really happens and people assume they’ll come back into a worst job. They’ll derail their career, et cetera. They don’t conceive of.
They might come back better, [00:10:00] stronger. They might have an interesting story to tell in interviews, they might actually get right back onto the pathway where it happened to a very close friend of mine from college. Right back on the path as if he had never left his job. Right. And like, it almost looked like a zero cost trip.
Right. Other than the actual cost.
[00:10:14] Todd Stansbury: For me, I was leaving Georgia Tech, which was my alma mater and obviously a big part of my ability to navigate through no pun intended, navigate through this career of mine. I don’t know if I had never left Georgia Tech, would I have actually ascended to ultimately become the athletic director at Georgia Tech.
And I don’t think I would have. And so by leaving it almost propelled my career in a direction that I may not have ever achieved. Had I never left.
[00:10:48] AJ Maestas: Well, that’s your second reference using Navigate. So, uh, thanks for that. Just to remind you, you get a crisp $20 bill every time you do that and no, all joking aside.
I think that’s true. You hear that all the time. And I know you’re a great mentor to the people you work with. You’re [00:11:00] honest with people, right. With what it takes to reach the next level. If that is their goal. It’s unfortunately true. Honestly, I think it’s unfortunate that people tend to have to leave to be viewed differently than sit in that seat somewhere else.
But I think there’s other things that probably happened to you. You, you know, it was the first question until those three interviews, you were a more interesting worldly experienced person, right? You had the ability to be more creative because you’d seen more things. There’s really cool research on people’s creative ability based on their life experiences.
You know, those that live abroad have measurably more creativity. There’s all kinds of just benefits there that you might not sense and feel because you just think that’s a part of your life that it just doesn’t happen. If you have, you know, you’re just nose down, right? One athletic department in one city at one university, your whole life.
With that said, do you really want this job? I used to have a fantasy dream of being an athletic director. Like I love the Huskies. I thought, oh, you know, it’s like, I don’t mind that it’s a lifestyle job. I love, love the Huskies. Love Seattle. I’d love to be UW’s athletic director. Now there’s no price to take that job [00:12:00] when having had the direct and personal experience of working with you at a number of universities and a number of athletic directors, right.
We’ve we’ve done probably two, three dozen pretty strategic assignments last year. In collegiate athletics, it doesn’t look like a fun job to me. The political pressure, the risks, the threats, the inability to move forward quickly in a bureaucratic environment that you think would be a safe environment, right?
The ivory tower. You think it’d be a place of innovation. You have so many stakeholders, students, staff, faculty, alumni, fans. There’s so many ways to derail this job. Not trying to be negative, but I just know you’re a very honest man. I mean, why do you still do it and what balances out? The 200 nights, a year of events and all the things I just said that maybe that has you energized showing up, ready and eager.
[00:12:44] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. No, I think you’re right. There are so many constituencies sometimes and with competing priorities and of course the job, obviously with all the moving parts isn’t getting any easier. And that’s why it’s so important that you [00:13:00] have a north star. And in my case, the north star is the development of young people.
I see intercollegiate athletics as a vehicle to provide opportunity to young people, to develop them and to be a part of that. And sometimes as the AD, it gets a little harder. You have to be very, very deliberate to maintain that connection because it’s easy with all the things going on to lose it.
For me, that’s my north star. That’s why you do it. And just a quick story. Of course, we’re going through a transition in, in football. And so, you know, there’s been some difficult Saturdays, but we were hosting Georgia Tech had just recognized their 40, under 40. And I was home and we, and intercollegiate athletics had five, which that’s saying something, because, 40, under 40 at Georgia Tech is a pretty impressive group.
And so we were really excited about having five of the 40, under 40. And, and I was hosting in [00:14:00] my suite, one of our 40, under 40 her and her husband, her name’s Jenny Moore. And, you know, we’re playing Pittsburgh and they were pretty good this year. I think a lot better than most people anticipated. So it was a, it was a rough Saturday, but I’m entertaining this woman who ran track for us, she swam for us and ultimately became one of the first female fighter pilots to fly in combat.
And I’m like, man, you know, And what’s going on in the field right now. It’s tough to watch, but this is why we do it. These young people go on to do extraordinary things. And to have any part of that in helping them achieve their goals or even raising the expectations that they have for themselves, so that they go on and do more than what they ever thought possible.
That’s what makes it all worth it. But you do have to be very deliberate in continuing to have that connection to those, those [00:15:00] student athletes, because it’s like in any organization, it’s easy to get farther and farther away from what got you into this thing to begin with. But for me, that’s what does it.
[00:15:11] AJ Maestas: Oh, you know what? I love that actually I’ve heard a lot of senior administrators lament, the distance they have between them and the student athletes and young people, especially when they become like a commissioner. Right. Of a conference.
[00:15:23] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. So like this weekend, we had a senior day for our swim team. And the coolest thing about that is for me, when the seniors it’ll be their last meet last game, whatever.
And when they come to me in the line of people shaking their hands and they call me by my first name and they say, you know, thank you Todd, for everything. That means I’m not Mr. Stansbury. I’m not the AD. I’m just Todd. That’s when I feel like I’ve done my job.
[00:15:56] AJ Maestas: Well, that’s cool. I’m sure that’s a tear jerking kind of [00:16:00] moment, right?
Like it’s like, yeah, why you’re here. I love that. I love that north star, right. Or that reason for being, or purpose or whatever. I’m reading a lot about purpose right now, myself. That’s cool. That’s really cool. And it would take that honestly, to get through the stuff that. See athletic directors in yourself having to, to deal with it, by the way.
I think you remember Natesh Rao, out here he’s in athletics and Arizona State. He was the first Indian American fighter pilot for this country, not to beat a dead horse with this, but we’ve done in working for you. We had to educate ourselves on Georgia Tech and I’m sure you know, the statistics off the top of your head right now.
Their earnings are more than double that of a normal bachelor degree holding student in the United States. I suspect a lot of people don’t realize that Georgia Tech alumni go on to do these exceptional things and how difficult it is to get into and through that university with a degree
really seriously.
[00:16:54] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. It’s great when you cross the stage, but there’s a lot of sleepless nights to get to [00:17:00] that point. That’s for sure.
[00:17:01] AJ Maestas: Yeah. Yeah. And I can hear them correcting me right now, but it’s an institute, not a university, but moving on, moving on, moving on, we’ve had a number of athletic directors and conference commissioners on the show.
You know, it’s just kind of a passion for me, right? The collegiate stuff. I’ve asked all of them or almost all of them about name, image and likeness, gambling in the employment of athletes, some of the potential employment, collective bargaining, unionization. You know, all this stuff. Do you mind weighing in as well?
Like if you were the czar of collegiate athletics in this changing environment, what would you do? What changes would you make? I’d love to hear your opinion on it if you’re willing.
[00:17:39] Todd Stansbury: Yeah, sure. Obviously there’s so much going on, on so many different levels when it comes to, in my mind, a threat to the collegiate experience.
And I think obviously it’s. Definitely creating opportunities. And I L I think it’s great that it’s creating opportunities for [00:18:00] student athletes to take advantage of name, image, and likeness, as well as any other potential business opportunity that comes their way similar to other students on campus. At Georgia Tech, of course this was like startup U.
And so as I look at it, it’s an opportunity for us to really do things that we’re already doing and have been doing as part of. The total person program of preparing student athletes for life after sport. And a lot of that is how to be entrepreneurs and those kinds of things. And so the good thing about NIL is it kind of gives us a carrot in the past of, by we put on a seminar, which we have on, you know, how to pay your taxes or create an LLC.
You can just imagine how many volunteers we have showing up for those kinds of seminars. Prior to NIL. But now, because it’s part of an NIL [00:19:00] program, we’ve got a ton of interest from student athletes. And of course, this is all knowledge and skills that we want them to have because ultimately. We want them to be entrepreneurs.
My concern is, is that it devolves into just another way to, to entice high school kids or transfers to go to schools through incentives, money, whatever, and we get away from the long game of ultimately developing young people really for the rest of their lives. And so I think there’s a lot of upside and I think it’s great.
And I hope once the smoke clears on kind of the, the wild west kind of feel that I think we’re all in now, it will be a tool by which student athletes are really the beneficiaries of these opportunities. And it’s more than just short-term gain because obviously they’ve got such a short window of being a student athlete.
That the more [00:20:00] advantage they can put themselves in for the long game is obviously the better.
[00:20:04] AJ Maestas: And I know you mean that and you believe that, and you act on that just for our listeners. I’ve met five or six really impressive entrepreneurs from universities you’ve been an athletic director at, just in the decade that we’ve known each other, right.
As you’re promoting these people, to creating the next to this, that whatever, often in sports business, because that’s why I’m part of the conversation. But I mean, at Oregon State, you’d done an amazing programs, right. To get these kids the chance to be entrepreneurs, raise money competitions, right? Like sort of the startup competitions.
So I can only imagine what we’re going to see here in a decade or two out of the kids that you impact at Georgia Tech.
[00:20:37] Todd Stansbury: One of the real cool things is so here we have an undergraduate entrepreneurship program where it’s called create acts, and they’re trying to pump out 300 undergraduate companies a year. And there’s seed funding associated with it.
And I mean, it is really, really a very cool program. And [00:21:00] this fall in their ideation to prototype competition, three of our swimmers actually, And you can imagine the kind of entrepreneurs we’ve got at this institution. And so that’s all part of our startup U program where we help our student athletes prepare.
And actually the idea is that put them in a position to start their own companies while they’re undergrads.
[00:21:30] AJ Maestas: Wow. That’s so cool. That’s unbelievable. And what a great time to fail and learn. I mean, as an entrepreneur myself, I can only imagine if I’m skinned my knees a little bit too. You know what I mean?
Doing the dirty work of the startup process, you know, 10, 20 years earlier. That’s unbelievable.
[00:21:46] Todd Stansbury: What better time to be an entrepreneur than when you don’t have to worry about three squares, a roof over your head and insurance.
[00:21:57] AJ Maestas: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. No, [00:22:00] but really there’s all the tech and innovation talent right there too. Right. Or if they aren’t doing that themselves
[00:22:05] Todd Stansbury: So, their company’s called radio chain and it’s actually using block chain in the music business. And apparently, and it’s way beyond me, because I don’t really understand all this blockchain stuff to begin with, but it could be transformative for musical artists.
To really protect themselves. Compensation-wise on where their music actually goes. So anyways, that’s just a little plug for three of our swimmers and their company, radio chain.
[00:22:37] AJ Maestas: We put out notes with these as well, so that people can like hit that link. And if they want to know who that fighter pilot is, right that was a 40 under 40 or radio chain or what have you, there will also be a picture of you. Traveling the world . With more hippy hair, if you allow it, if you allow it. Of course. But I think it’s actually an inspirational reminder to [00:23:00] young people, right. That you don’t have to fit into this little box right here.
So hopefully you give us a green light on that, but yeah, we’ll follow up on that. Cause I do think that’s really cool. That’s a tangible, real example of what’s going on and what happens. And I think. Joe fan Joe America, even me, you know, cause I’m so entrenched in the business side of things, you know, you just forget about what happens with the student athlete experience of which I know, you know, firsthand, but it’s just one of those things where you kind of lose touch with that.
Where I thought I was going to go and ask you the question about athlete compensation and NIL it’s where all the past conversations have gone. If you don’t mind me revisiting just big picture with NCAA. If you were in charge, what does it look like in 10 years? What is the NCAAs role? What is happening with athlete compensation with all of these hot subjects?
[00:23:43] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. And I think that that’s where it’s going to be a difficult problem to solve because you are running up against legislation. And I’m talking about the laws of the land, anti trust NLRB policy things that are [00:24:00] way beyond athletics. And I think that these are not going to be easy problems to solve, or they would have already been solved.
But I really do believe that we need some kind of guard rails and obviously with Alston and some of the recent cases, some of those traditional guard rails just aren’t going to work anymore. And so the ultimate goal is how do you provide opportunities and allow student athletes to have similar freedoms to everybody else, but at the same time, protect the collegiate model.
And I think one of the issues that we have is we’ve devalued the actual education, the opportunity, as you said earlier, you get a Georgia Tech degree and you look at the numbers associated with that. I mean, it’s, it’s extraordinary. And what you hate to see is somebody pass up on that [00:25:00] opportunity because of something that is more short term or for whatever reason and, and all universities have great programs.
I mean, there’s, you know, all these universities, you know, have great programs. The problem you have at times is the student athletes aren’t necessarily in them. And then, so I think we’ve just, we’ve taken the opportunity provided, uh, getting, uh, a quality education. And somehow that’s no longer part of the equation in for a lot of people when there’s a lot of value in that.
And so I don’t have the answer, but I do believe that at the end of the day, how do we protect the student athletes opportunity? And to make sure that they’re able to take advantage of that opportunity.
[00:25:51] AJ Maestas: That’s good. You know, I actually, this is one of the things that I’m going to go do the math on because a quality degree, let’s say a quality educational [00:26:00] experience versus pumping you through a football factory where let’s be honest.
Some of these kids aren’t even really ready for the real world versus expected or. As a professional and you said sport, even football,
[00:26:10] Todd Stansbury: because the other thing that’s going on now of course, is the transfer portal. Right. And just, which I think has changed in the way that coaches can coach. Cause they’re so concerned about losing the players.
They already have. And I think what’s going to be interesting when we kind of debrief on this window of time where all these changes are happening at the same time, five years from now, what the numbers look like with regards to graduation rates and where these kids end up and just looking at the number of student athletes that are in the transfer portal.
So like musical chairs, there’s not going to be a chair for everyone. Yeah. And so how many student athletes are giving up a great opportunity at the institution that they’re at, [00:27:00] and rather than grinding through like old school, and if you’re not playing, you’ll work harder to try and beat the guy out or whatever, you know, you’re entering the transfer portal and do you end up in a better place or not, and ultimately do you graduate and ultimately was that the best decision for you?
And I just fear that the student athlete and now the other thing, that’s the, the unintended consequence of that is there’s not as many opportunities for high school kids, because all these coaches are keeping a number of scholarships in their back pocket, not knowing who’s going to enter the transfer portal.
So I, you know, I don’t know what the answers are going to be, but I’m hoping that once we get through this very dynamic time in intercollegiate athletics that we’re able to put some kind of guard rails on this thing so that we make sure that we secure the opportunity that’s [00:28:00] available to these young people.
Knowing that there’s what two, 5% of student athletes that have the ability to take advantage of almost a pro experience while in college. And those are limited to a couple of sports. But 95% of the student athletes that go through intercollegiate athletics have that traditional experience. And so how do we protect that?
That’s good.
[00:28:28] AJ Maestas: That’s interesting. You know, I had a Jon Steinbrecher from the commissioner of the MAC join us recently doing this podcast and he chaired the transfer, you know, changes, right. Which, who would have seen the tampering and NIL at the same time. But I remember him sharing with me that one transer on average can be very beneficial for kids.
You know, if they’re even looking to transfer it’s more than just my starting. So there’s just fit with the university or what have you. But multiple transfers was a real problem. That the outcomes are really poor. And who knows if that’s chicken or the egg, you know, [00:29:00] kid that chooses to, or wants to transfer two or three or four times or whatever.
But that’s interesting. Interesting. Well, when you look back, you were a student athlete, right? You came in there and recruited as a running back, end up a linebacker, the classic story, by the way. So common take that talent speed, right? Move it around on the field. When you look back at it and the demands that you had as a student athlete and with the school as rigorous as Georgia Tech.
I mean, is this just getting ridiculous? You know, are we asking too much anyway? You know, can you take, can you pursue a rigorous degree have realistically while being a football player?
[00:29:32] Todd Stansbury: Yeah, I mean, in fact, I think there’s more guard rails now to protect a student athlete than there certainly were when I was a player, you know, as far as limits on how much time you can require student athletes to be involved in athletic activities and all those kinds of things.
So. We’ve done an schools, the NCAA or whatever, have done a pretty good job in trying to create an environment where student athletes [00:30:00] can participate in their sports. And also earn a college degree, do other things it’s hard. There’s no doubt about it because it’s definitely not getting any easier, but I do believe that sometimes we underestimate what these young people are capable of doing.
And I learned this firsthand when I was in charge of academics here at Georgia Tech. And I saw what student athletes were capable of as far as academically. And sometimes it really changed the way that I looked at the not only what I could expect, but what these kids could actually achieve. And when you think about it, AJ these student athletes, whether at Georgia Tech, I mean, we got what 350,000 of them every year or whatever.
When you look at them as a cohort of Gen Z’s, or in their generation. They’re the [00:31:00] best of the best of the best, right? I mean, yeah. I think of Jenny Moore, she ran, she swam in the morning on the swim team and then she ran cross country at night on the track team. And then she goes on to be a fighter pilot.
Of course she does. Right. Of course. But I mean, she’s exceptional, but there are so many of those stories out there of just exceptional young people. And it’s really the rigors, the expectations, you know, all those things that you learn through sport, get knocked down and have to get back up that when you really think about it, it’s hard to simulate in any other educational setting, what you’re able to do in athletics.
And so in a lot of ways, I think that it’s better. And of course, student-athlete welfare is like top of mind. Right. I don’t think in 1980, 1979, that was even a coined [00:32:00] phrase.
[00:32:02] AJ Maestas: Yeah. You did what they told you to do when you told them to do it. I get that. That’s true. You’re right. You’re right. The feedback from student athletes has been, you know, our schedules are packed and then you see, you know, rulings and rules and guidelines that limit practice time, et cetera.
So you’re right. You’re right. That’s good. Well, tell me about your fundraising. What are the things that really stick out to me when we were last together was the numbers you’re hitting every year, 40 plus million a year. These are all record breaking years. Every year you’ve been at Georgia Tech. These are, you know, Alabama winning the national championship SEC type fundraising numbers.
How exactly are you doing that? And what are you doing with the money?
[00:32:39] Todd Stansbury: Well, one of the advantages of Georgia Tech is the success of our alumns. And in fact, that’s one of the things that is a differentiator for us. And, and because of, you know, Georgia Tech has gone through a transition from creating the best engineers in the world to creating the [00:33:00] best entrepreneurs in the world. And so our alumns are actually, we’re getting younger and wealthier all at the same time. Some of these kids are having their first exit two and three years after graduation, which is unbelievable. So the good news is, is that the way I’ve got a . Great base of alums that are passionate about Georgia Tech, passionate about Georgia Tech athletics.
And then as far as one of the things that I, when I came back to Georgia Tech, I said, we’re an institution that expects excellence in everything that we do, whether it’s, you know, being the commander of the space station or a fighter pilot or an entrepreneur or whatever it may be. So why would we ever, um, expect that we could be mediocre in, in athletics?
Which is probably the most visible thing to the general [00:34:00] public that we do. And I think that that resonated with, with our alums. I think it resonates with kind of the Georgia Tech community that you can’t say. You’re excellent. And then just pick your spots. And so I think that our people are willing to invest in excellence.
And so some of it is cap projects or in the process of, or have been, we’ve done a number of capital projects, baseball, a couple of locker rooms, football locker room, women’s basketball locker room. And then, and then our overall athletics kind of headquarters is kind of next on the agenda. And, and we’re able to our, at this point, we’ve kind of put all the packaging together and now we’re just waiting approval from the system to give us the green light on that. But that’s one of those projects that’s multi-generational so there’s plenty to find to spend it on, but I’ve just been very, very fortunate that we’ve got a lot of very, very successful alums that are passionate about Georgia Tech, athletics.[00:35:00]
[00:35:00] AJ Maestas: I’ve had the chance to meet some through you. And there’s no question, you know, it’s kind of sneaky and in the background, these engineers running businesses, inventing things. So I get that. I get that one more business question. And it’s only because we worked on this together, your multimedia rights deal, but I think it’s worth mentioning your relationship with Legends is, was a first of its kind in a number of different ways.
And I know it takes time, but I would love to. You know what you would foreshadow from that, why you did it, anything you can share that might help your peers out there as they consider their alternative futures and how they generate revenue
[00:35:32] Todd Stansbury: Very well for us, you know, we’re in the toughest neighborhood in America, when it comes to in intercollegiate athletics, you know, you draw 150 mile radius around Atlanta, Georgia.
That’s a tough neighborhood and we’re a unique institution, stem centric, stem dominated, we’re in Midtown Atlanta. And so the idea of one rolling up all of our revenue streams into one partner and being nimble [00:36:00] enough to create opportunities for corporate partners, communities, whatever, to really target them with what is it that they need.
And so having one partner that’s dealing with, you know, your corporate, either corporate partnership side, your ticketing, your annual fund, your hospitality. Rolling that all up into one partnership. So that Legends, when they’re out there representing you, they’ve got all the levers to pull, knowing that they’re going to be specially because it’s Georgia Tech there are opportunities out there that are not traditional to intercollegiate athletics. And how do we package what we’ve got to offer into something that may not be the norm. And so that was really the reason that we went with Legends was to be able to be more nimble, more creative, be Georgia Tech, pull the levers that we’ve got as opposed [00:37:00] to something that looks a lot like what is being sold everywhere else.
And then the other part of it was. Their access to whether it’s analytics tools, whether it’s best practices. I mean, the fact that they’re at every level of, you know, professional sport, both national here in the U.S., international, so that when you’re looking at trends, problems, opportunity, They bring a wealth of background to the table that we ourselves would never have access to.
And then as we look at big projects that will require some significant financial backing, it just gives us a lot more flexibility, knowing that if there’s an ROI on a project that really makes sense. Legends has the ability to partner with us on that. And it’s not just going to be based on our ability to whether it’s [00:38:00] borrow money or bond it or whatever.
So it just gives us flexibility to be Georgia Tech, to identify opportunities that might not be the norm, and really be able to take advantage of them that by ourselves, we would never be able to do.
[00:38:15] AJ Maestas: Well, thank you for sharing that. Cause you know, you, you had a tremendous interest in Georgia Tech, even though have a tough neighborhood to play, especially with your academic standards and what have you, but, and you had an abundance of interesting parties with some really interesting non-traditional solutions.
And I’m excited about this one. I think that goes without saying, but my expectations, I know you can’t say this, but my expectations are that it’s a smashing success and I’m really excited to check in, you know, year five year, eight year ten and ask ourselves, you know, did we do the right thing with the benefit of hindsight?
You know, was this the right thing for Georgia Tech? I’m pretty excited about it. Do you mind if I ask you some rapid fire questions here before we break up? Okay. Cool. All right. Good. What is the greatest piece of advice you’ve ever received?
[00:38:56] Todd Stansbury: Well, this was a Homer Rice one. . Sleep on it. [00:39:00]
[00:39:00] AJ Maestas: Okay, good, good, good.
I thought I was just thinking, I was thinking there’s a number of ways this could go. I’m glad that’s the one you chose, but it is good. It is good, right? Yeah. You’re not made to make the decision in the moment.
[00:39:15] Todd Stansbury: Especially now with email texting, all those kinds of things, you know, we all get emails, texts, whatever that kind of, you know, ruffle the feathers a little bit. And I always go back to a Homer telling us when I worked for him, never respond in the moment. Especially if it’s something that’s upsetting, sleep on it and kind of deal with it the next day or whatever. And I found that that has been invaluable because there’s so many times you just want to fly off the handle and, you know, send that ugly email back that ultimately would regret.
And so I lived by that for the last, what? 30 years or so. [00:40:00]
[00:40:00] AJ Maestas: Yeah, it would in the moment it would feel good to purge, right. If someone listening here is heading to Atlanta. What is something they absolutely must see or do,
[00:40:08] Todd Stansbury: You got to go to the MLK Memorial civil rights museum, especially if you’re a developer of future leaders.
And we’re lucky being in Atlanta. So our student athletes have incredible access, but I think it’s a must-do just because, you know, it’s just such a tribute to an incredible leader.
[00:40:27] AJ Maestas: I’ve been to Atlanta several times and I haven’t been so shame on me. What do you do to relax and recover?
[00:40:32] Todd Stansbury: I drink red wine.
[00:40:35] AJ Maestas: Yeah, that’s good. If you don’t mind sharing, what is the most innovative or exciting project you’ve overseen in the last year?
[00:40:43] Todd Stansbury: This is a cool one. So when I first got back, one of the things that, you know, as you looked at Georgia Tech differentiators, and how do we compete and in this neighborhood that we’re in.
One of the ideas I had was because of this innovation ecosystem, we’re surrounded by. [00:41:00] How could we participate knowing that, you know, when the next greatest star, the next Gatorade’s created, how can we get a piece of that action? So we actually now have our own VC fund. So Georgia Tech athletics has its own VC fund.
And so now we are actually able to participate as equity partners in this undergraduate entrepreneurship program Create X where we’re actually investing in some of these companies that are sport related. And that is a pretty cool project to be part of.
[00:41:35] AJ Maestas: Oh, yeah, that’s incredible. That’s amazing. And why not?
Of course you are this that needs to make more news Todd, by the way, that needs to be more well-known. I think I knew this and I have, you know, forgotten along the way. I’m really glad you reminded me of that. That’s pretty cool.
[00:41:50] Todd Stansbury: Yeah. And it’s taken us a while to get there as you can imagine, because it’s never been done.
And there’s a lot of, a lot of hurdles that, that we need [00:42:00] to jump but, one of the first things I did when I got here was I created an assistant, AD for innovation whose sole job is to connect the dots within this innovation ecosystem because we’re surrounded, there’s so much going on. And, and so we run our own hackathons.
We do all kinds of innovation type programming. We have student groups on campus trying to solve our biggest problems, whether it’s analytics or you name it. And so this was our, our latest victory in this area where we’re now we actually have our own VC.
[00:42:38] AJ Maestas: I love it. That is so cool. You know what that reminds me when we were working on your apparel deal, which I know it was exciting just to move to Adidas, given the history and what have you.
But I remember you things I would never know, you know, as an outsider, as a consultant, right. Where there was apparel performance, apparel research, taking place on campus already. And how could that be a part of right. The relationship with Adidas just that’s. [00:43:00] Uh, it’s like an onion, right? As you peel back the layers of Georgia Tech and the stuff that these amazing young people are doing.
Very cool stuff. I’m really grateful. You shared all this. This is not normal. I don’t think these things are happening at an average athletic department. They’re not, I think this is, this is meaningful for peers to learn from. Not just, you know what I mean? The next generation of Todd Stansbury’s. But I’m super grateful that you did take the time to share all this.
If anyone who’s listening has any questions or comments. I know Todd would be willing to answer some good follow-up questions. You can reach out to us via our emails. They’re publicly available on websites. My email is AJ@NVGT.COM you can also connect with us on my personal LinkedIn or the Navigate page.
But, uh, again, this is AJ Maestas with Navigate joined by Todd Stansbury. Thank you for joining us on navigating sports business.
[00:43:45] Todd Stansbury: Enjoyed it. This has been great. Thanks. AJ.