Marshall chooses Christian Spears as next athletic director

Marshall University has its next athletic director.

The school’s Board of Governors voted Monday morning to hire Christian Spears to fill the position that was held by Jeff O’Malley on an interim basis since July 1, 2021.

Spears will begin in his role March 14.

Spears comes to Huntington from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as deputy athletic director and chief operating officer. Spears managed all revenue generation and external operations and focused on strategic partnerships to aid in reducing expenses and supplement revenue streams.

At Pitt, Spears was responsible for marketing and branding, media relations, fundraising, ticket operations, licensing, merchandising, game presentation, broadcast services and multimedia rights.

“Christian Spears is a transformational leader who exhibits a deep respect for tradition, combined with an ability to architect a vision to unleash potential,” said Marshall President Brad D. Smith said in a release. “I am excited to welcome Christian to Marshall to serve in this pivotal role.

“Christian’s leadership philosophy and his drive for Marshall to build on its storied foundation of winning mirror my own. I look forward to working with him to usher in the next chapter of great for Athletics at our university.”

Christian Spears

With more than 25 years of experience at all levels of intercollegiate athletics administration, Spears is considered an accomplished leader with a proven track record of fundraising, forming corporate partnerships and developing and executing strategic plans.

He began at Pitt in May 2017 and was critical in a capital campaign that supported Pitt’s $250 million “Victory Heights” initiative to build and upgrade athletic facilities, helping to raise nearly $15 million of the $25 million goal to-date, as well as assisting with the development of the champions advisory board that has engaged 24 new alumni/donors with the goal of completing the campaign by 2024.

Spears also worked with the department’s fundraising arm to raise more than $100 million since 2017, including the largest gift in Pitt Athletics history ($20 million) and played an influential role in the development of an Athletics strategic plan, core values and set of strategic initiatives.

“I am thrilled for Christian and Marshall University,” said University of Pittsburgh Director of Athletics Heather Lyke. “Christian has been a trusted colleague and friend for decades and an invaluable leader in our department. Marshall University is getting an experienced and visionary leader who brings positive energy, intellect and a can-do mindset, but most importantly, someone who has a genuine interest for the well-rounded success of student-athletes. I look forward to following his progress. He and his family will be deeply missed.”

At Marshall, Spears will oversee a 16-sport athletics program with a budget of $30 million.

The move comes at a busy time for Thundering Herd athletics, which is set to transition from Conference USA to the Sun Belt Conference in the near future.

Marshall officially accepted entrance into the Sun Belt under O’Malley’s watch on November 1, 2021.

“I want to extend a heart-felt thank you to Jeff O’Malley for his leadership during this interim period,” Smith said. “We have a proud legacy of great leaders like Jeff in our Athletics department, so Christian Spears will be standing on the shoulders of giants when he assumes the duties as the next athletic director for The Herd.”

Marshall has made it known it would like to be in the Sun Belt for the upcoming football season, though C-USA bylaws state members need to give the conference 14 months notice before departing.

Upon releasing its football schedules for the 2022 season last week, C-USA included Marshall, as well as Southern Mississippi and Old Dominion, who like MU, are bound for the Sun Belt.

It remains to be seen if Marshall will spend its next athletics season as a member of the Sun Belt or C-USA, though the issue could be resolved in court.

Before his arrival at Pitt, Spears was deputy athletic director at Eastern Michigan, where he helped lead EMU’s athletic department’s external division and had oversight of development, marketing, corporate partnership efforts, fan experience and media relations. Spears was also responsible for the Eagles’ football scheduling and assisted with the administration of the football program, while serving a stint as the school’s athletic director.

Before his time at EMU, Spears was deputy director of athletics at Northern Illinois from 2009-2014.

From 2003-2009, Spears was assistant athletic director at Southern Illinois, which followed a short stint as assistant director of athletics for compliance at Harvard.

Spears began his career in college athletics as an assistant director of marketing at Long Beach State, a role he held from 1996-99. He then served as the Big Ten Minority Intern for Ohio State University, working in their athletic compliance office while he matriculated through the school’s Moritz College of Law.

Spears graduated from the University of Washington in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from California State University Long Beach in 1998 and his juris doctor from Ohio State in 2002.

Spears has been a member of the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association since 2003 and currently serves college football on the national level as a member of the College Football Playoff Advisory Committee. He formerly served as president of the National Association for Athletics Compliance and is an alumnus of the NCAA Pathway Program, which is intended to prepare participants to become directors of athletics or conference commissioners.

Spears and his wife Julia have three children, Rainier, Kai and Skyla.

O’Malley and Spears were two of four finalists for Marshall’s athletic director. The others were Andrew Goodrich, Syracuse Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Marketing Officer, and Chris Park, Washington State Deputy Director of Athletics over External Relations.

O’Malley took over for Mike Hamrick, who had been Marshall’s athletic director since 2009 before assuming a new role at the university.





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