Oregon State’s athletics department is moving toward the next phase of its administrative overhaul, with a finalist pool of four taking shape for the chief sports performance & operations officer job and a separate marketing search set to kick off soon.
Athletic director Kevin Griffin said some of the candidates will come to campus before a decision is made, and he wants the new hire in place by October. The search, which began earlier this month, is being handled with help from Collegiate Sports Associates.
The role is a big one. The new chief operating officer will oversee the day-to-day business of Oregon State’s teams, including revenue sharing and name, image and likeness compensation for players. Facilities also fall under the job, and Griffin pointed to the future of Gill Coliseum as one of the key issues.
The process has already included phone interviews this week, with chief financial officer Jacque Bruns and director of development Jeff Pivic wrapping up that stage on Thursday. Griffin is expected to interview the finalists next.
At the same time, Oregon State is building out another part of its executive structure. Griffin said the department will add a marketing and commercialization position, with Elevate Talent - the same firm used in the athletic director search - set to assist beginning next week.
That person will report to the COO and focus on “where we drive and derive revenue for the business,” Griffin said.
NIL and revenue sharing will be central pieces of the job, including identifying and structuring NIL deals for players and handling the department’s revenue sharing contracts. For now, Learfield’s Beaver Sports Properties continues to support Oregon State’s NIL work through its multimedia rights business.
Griffin said the department still needs to do more to find outside opportunities for student-athletes.
“Where we have to grow is other opportunities; going out and finding other opportunities for our student-athletes,” Griffin said. “Those can be opportunities just for the student-athlete, for them and that company and their own NIL, or combined with our marks and logos. That’s the area we got to continue to work on.”
He said Oregon State is not planning to create a separate entity to run revenue sharing and NIL operations, at least not right now. Griffin said he has a “15-point plan,” which will be formally unveiled in September, and that “everything is on the table” as the department decides how to move forward.
“We have to explore every option,” Griffin said. “That doesn’t mean that we would actually stand up an affiliated entity.
We want to understand what that looks like. I did a lot of that work at (Ohio State), so we can go pretty fast.
It’s certainly something that’s been discussed, but not in detail, on campus.”
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