LAS VEGAS — On Wednesday morning, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez stepped up to the podium and ushered in the conference's new era.
Three new full-time conference members joined the Mountain West in Hawai‘i, UTEP and UC Davis on July 1. Additionally, Northern Illinois and North Dakota State joined the conference as football affiliates and sent representatives to the league's football media days, which take place from Wednesday to Thursday at the Palms Casino Resort.
For the University of Hawai‘i, the school departed the Big West Conference and became full-time members of the Mountain West on the same day its new TV deal with Hawai‘i News Now kicked in at the beginning of the month.
Change is certainly in the air for Hawai‘i, and one of the central figures leading the school through it all is athletics director Matt Elliott.
Aloha State Daily sat down for a Q&A with Elliott, who recently finished his first year as UH's athletics director, on what's next for him and the school.
Aloha State Daily: A year into the gig, what are some of your main takeaways from Year 1?
Matt Elliott: "An excellent foundation. Really good people, great staff, great coaches, wonderful student-athletes, and then as everything's changed so much, we have incredible potential that we wanted to harness and see how we could grow, and that's still true going into Year 2. But I think we navigated the new NIL system very well. We created a structure that was good for our student-athletes. Had really good success from our teams' standpoint. Very competitive and successful academically, which is awesome. Two of the highest GPAs that we've ever had between the fall and the spring semester, over 3.3 cumulative GPA in the spring semester, which was unbelievable. So, the takeaways is things are in really good shape, but the challenges are significant. How do we generate enough revenue to cover those expenses, to cover our NIL needs, to cover our new travel costs, all that kind of stuff. That's where we have to keep growing and building. We have to do more in fundraising. We can sell more tickets. We can definitely get more sponsorships. Those are areas we can grow, but we got at the same time, keep our eyes on how the students are doing, what their experiences are. We feel great. We're very excited."
ASD: What is it like being here today and being celebrated as a new full-time Mountain West conference member, along with the other schools?
Elliott: "It's funny, because we've been here, but we haven't been here, right? It does feel complete. I've been confused all year when I can vote in meetings and when I can't because sometimes we were not allowed to. They put (UH) president (Wendy) Hensel on the executive committee. They picked her as a representative to the College Football Playoff board. We are at the table. We are in the room, and I think this is a group of people from the athletic directors, the presidents that I've gotten to know, and the conference leadership that we're all in together, we see upside collectively. We're all going to compete on the field, obviously, but we're not in an every man for himself mentality."
ASD: How do you feel about the outcome of the school's new TV deal for athletics?
Elliott: "I think it's great. I love the idea that our games are going to be on K5. I love that they're going to do 110 live events, and then we're going to supplement that with campus broadcasts. Our fans are going to see more UH games than they've ever seen before. 'We can only watch volleyball tonight, nobody can see baseball.' That won't be the case anymore. You'll be able to do both. ... I think the partnership is going to be really strong, and I'm excited for the transition. There's always going to be bumps and whatnot, but at the same time, it's really good content for our fans, and then you add access on the Mountain West app to be able to see every road game, everything that you know across all of our sports. That's what we want. We want to highlight exposure as much as possible."
ASD: Since we're here at football media days, has Timmy Chang signed a new contract extension?
Elliott: "We have a deal. It's just a matter of going through those signature processes. We'll announce it very soon. But yes, we have a long-term extension.
"He and I reached a deal in the in the winter. His focus was, 'I want to get deals done for all my staff,' so that's where we spent some time. In a lot of cases, we're doing two-year deals for a lot of the assistant coaches, so kind of getting all those in place first, and now we've been just going through it, and it takes regent approval. It takes different levels of our university to approve the contract. So, it's done. It's just a matter of getting it all signed."
(Click here for details on the Timmy Chang contract renewal.)
ASD: How has your experience living on O‘ahu and going out in public differed from when you got the UH AD gig as opposed to when you weren't with the school?
Elliott: "Totally different [laughs]. Yeah. A huge adjustment, but it's sure fun, though. People are so nice and respectful and fun, and I love it. It's super cool. It's been a blast, and I think the the overriding sentiment is people love UH, so they just want to talk about our teams or our players, and they're just really excited about what we're accomplishing, and people have been really fun."
ASD: Is the football team close to a jersey patch deal? [Note: The NCAA approved jersey patches for teams in January as additional income streams for schools.]
Elliott: "We are in very serious talks with one specific sponsor, so I would love to have that done in the next few weeks so that we can announce it. We're doing it different. We're not doing a department-wide jersey patch. We're out there negotiating and selling for individual sports. We're trying to get football and women's volleyball done as soon as possible, so that then we have a little more time to get basketball, baseball."
ASD: Do you anticipate any repeat sponsors on UH patches, or will each team have a different sponsor?
Elliott: "There could be, yeah. We've had a conversation about one sponsor that could want both basketball teams, for example, something like that."
ASD: A big part of your first year was seeking $5 million from the state legislature for NIL funds, an effort that didn't fully come to fruition. What were your takeaways from that, and will you and the school continue to seek NIL funds in that same arena?
Elliott: "I don't know. The honest answer is that'll be a decision that we make with president Hensel and chancellor Vassilis Syrmos, what their strategic plan in terms of what the university is going to ask for next year. I'm not sure what the ask will be. My takeaways are that I actually think, despite the outcome, we succeeded because we educated our community about NIL and it gave us a platform to talk about what is the new reality of college sports in a way that was widely discussed. The $5 million became almost the sideshow, NIL and what it is was widely discussed. And then to be fortunate enough to have the teams do well at the same time, you understand that if we want to continue to win bowl games or go to the NCAA Tournament or win national championships, that's not going to happen without NIL. I think most people in our state get that. I don't know if that was fully appreciated and understood a year ago because it was so different, because it was all collectives and behind the scenes. But now the institution gets to do it. My takeaways are that obviously I wish it had gone through. I wish we had more resources that we would be able to plug in right away. But I understand that they have to make tough decisions, and I'm very happy that we had the venue, the opportunity to talk about it as much as we need."
ASD: Another part of your first year was a pair of unexpected resignations in Laura Beeman and Robyn Ah Mow. Do you view two searches of that magnitude in one year as a sort of anomaly?
Elliott: "Probably. We re-signed (baseball coach) Rich (Hill), we re-signed (men's basketball head coach) Eran (Ganot), we re-signed Timmy. We hired Joshua (Walker), we hired Khalilah Mitchell. Of the six revenue sports, to have five major decisions have to be made is very unusual to all happen in the same year. With those two specifically, for Laura and Robyn to be in the places where it's time to do something different, I think that won't happen very often. You never can guess and never predict. Despite how we had to reprioritize some things to make sure that became the focus, I think we're in a really good place. I think Khalilah and Joshua are both outstanding hires, outstanding people. We've already seen and are starting to put together what the future looks like, and I'm very excited about it. The bottom line is, if you were to ask Robyn and Laura right now how they feel, I think they both would say they're thrilled with where these programs are going to go from what they built."
ASD: What was your reaction to the NCAA's new 5-for-5 rule? [Note: In June, the NCAA declared that athletes will have five full years to play five full seasons, starting when a student-athlete graduates high school or turns 19, effectively eliminating the redshirt.]
Elliott: "Honestly, there's been so much change in eligibility [ruling]. Two years from now, we could have a different rule. These rules are so fluid. We're looking at the Protect College Sports Act, and does that pass? And if that passes, then we might have a different system. But to your specific question, five for five makes sense. Just consistency. What I don't like is when you have thousands of waivers, no predictability about whether a student can play or not. It's not fair to the students. It's not fair to schools. But they really can draw a line, and it's pretty firm, five for five, and there's only limited exceptions for pregnancy and military service and religious service. OK, at least we're all in the same [five-year window].
ASD: Thank you for your time. Anything you'd like to add?
Elliott: "Really excited for football season to start, for women's volleyball season to start. Football season tickets are on sale. I hope people are excited as I am to be there game one. UNLV is going to be an absolutely amazing, amazing battle. So excited for that. And then we're making some significant changes to the football pregame experience this year. We're going to introduce something called the Rooftop Pā‘ina. We're going to have a pregame kind of fan fest experience on the fifth floor of the parking deck overlooking the stadium, and that's going to be really exciting. Tons of energy and opportunities for fans to come together, have fun, and really get hyped up before the game. I think that's going to be a cool change."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
