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Redefining Competitiveness In The Revenue Share Era With Southern Conference’s Michael Cross

Guest Michael Cross, Southern Conference
28:15 watch

Summary

Southern Conference Commissioner Michael Cross sits down with AthleticDirectorU’s Bryan Fischer at the 2025 NCAA Convention to explore how mid-major conferences can remain competitive and true to their values in an increasingly professionalized college athletics environment.

Cross unpacks how the SoCon is leaning into its identity, prioritizing the student-athlete educational experience, and building consensus among a uniquely diverse membership of public, private, and military institutions. As the post-House landscape brings budget pressures and governance ambiguity, Cross makes the case for a “right-sizing” strategy, avoiding the temptation to overspend while still creating compelling championship experiences and sustainable growth opportunities.

The conversation also covers the conference’s media rights outlook, bringing the league’s multimedia rights in-house, local revenue generation via regional partnerships, and the value of conference championships. “Our championships, I felt, have been significantly undervalued for some time and really, out in the world of sports tourism, there are a lot of people using the heads-in-beds model. They want you to bring people to their town. They want you to bring the teams. They want you to bring the fans. So we’ve started to very proactively get into conversations with a lot of the sports commissions in our area, in our footprint, to figure that out.” Drawing on lessons from the Knight Commission and his time on campus, Cross emphasizes the importance of thoughtful communication, consensus building, and carving out space to think clearly amid the noise.

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).

  • - How do you compare your time as a student-athlete with the experience of student-athletes in the Southern Conference now?
  • - What is the biggest thing student-athletes are telling you about their current experience?
  • - With so many unique institutions, how do you ensure that the experience is consistent for SoCon student-athletes?
  • - How do you work with your schools to build consensus?
  • - How do you make decisions as a leader? And how has that changed being in a conference office as opposed to on campus?
  • - How did your time with the Knight Commission prepare you for this role?
  • - How is the Southern Conference working to grow women's basketball and women's sports overall?
  • - What are local issues within your conference that need to be discussed more broadly?
  • - How do you deal with the differences between A4 programs and what you want to deliver at the FCS level?
  • - How do you help members navigate the rightsizing of their departments while striving to be as competitive as possible?
  • - After driving around 27,000 miles last year, what are you doing or listening to on the road?
  • - Do you find yourself trying to make those big decisions in a lot of those car rides?
  • - How are you looking at incremental revenue opportunities to enhance the experience across your league?
  • - What are your conversations with brands like?
  • - You mentioned Hurricane Helene. What was that experience like as a commissioner?
  • - Looking ahead, what do you want to improve about the student-athlete experience and what do you want to remain the same?
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