Big West Conference Commissioner Dan Butterly joins ADU’s Steph Garcia Cichosz at the 2023 NACDA Convention to reflect on the challenges of today’s athletics landscape from the conference perspective. Butterly shares insight into how he and the Big West staff address student-athlete well-being and evolve the championship experience. Butterly: “I’ll attend games without [our institutions] knowing I’m there… I can hide behind a hat and attend a game and watch what’s going on and get a sense of what the experience is like and that’s what I try to do… you get a real sense of what it’s like without the Commissioner being there and then when you indicate you are coming, there’s a whole different mindset – ‘Oh my gosh the Commissioner’s here.’ I’m not that kind of commissioner. I’m the kind of guy that just wants to sit in the stands and watch a game.”
The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).