Watch or listen to episode 320 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, in which Neil chatted with Kevin Richardson, Vice President of Content, Clemson Ventures.
Kevin discusses how Clemson Athletics is operating as a full-scale production house — building ownable IP, distributing original content across ESPN, Fox, Amazon Prime, and streaming platforms, and pushing the boundaries of what college athletics content can look like. Kevin breaks down the shift from fan affinity to content as a revenue driver, the vision for non-endemic storytelling that goes well beyond wins and losses, and how data is informing every content decision they make. He also shares his career path from Louisiana Tech and Rice to Texas and ultimately Clemson, the business case behind every piece of content Clemson Ventures produces, and why he believes college athletics hasn’t come close to scratching the surface of what’s possible.
Every sports league in the world deals with this challenge. Not even the behemoths like the NFL and NBA are immune.
They’re all chasing new fans.
For giants like the NFL, it’s about adding a few more billions to the coffers by introducing the sport and the league to fans outside the US. But for a league like Major League Rugby, not even ten years old, developing new fans is existential. Rugby is well-established around the world, but the sport and the top domestic league are in the challenger phase of growth in the US. With new sports leagues and properties popping up every year in the US, backed by investors seduced by the seemingly unending growth potential of sports properties as an asset class, the opportunities have never been greater, but so are the challenges of an increasingly crowded environment.
These are the things that excite Alex Magleby. A legend of the sport in the US, following a decorated career as a player and coach, it’s Magleby’s job as Co-President of Major League Rugby to grow MLR and its teams, and ensure the league will grow and flourish for years to come. Magleby and his colleagues focus on building an undeniable in-person experience first. Everything else emanates from an entertaining and accessible live experience.
“The business model itself is predicated on entertaining people, that’s really important,” said Magleby, who co-founded the MLR club New England Free Jacks. “So it doesn’t matter if you play rugby, if you ever played rugby. We have built our entire business on these great experiences.
“And you saw that with the Free Jacks. You could show up at a game, there was tailgating, there was live music, very good live music that you actually cared about. There usually was a beer festival or a food festival tied into the atmosphere inside the stadium. You could bring a friend who may not be a rugby person, but you may say, you know what? You’re going to really like this stout beer festival, or you’re going to really like the cheese and wine festival. Whatever it might be.”
Making a festival out of match day mitigates any risk of someone coming away not having a good time. It’s going to feel like a party no matter what. But it’s not just about everything around the game day, the entertainment promise extends to the pitch, whether you understand the X’s and O’s or not.
“You don’t even need to understand the rules to understand that this is really cool,” said Magleby, who also emphasized the affordability of MLR matches (‘a family of four can go and have a great time for under $100′). “I get passing and kicking and tackling and movement; I understand those all from the American sports experience. You can see [the players’] faces. It’s highly emotional, a lot of jeopardy. Major League Rugby in particular has the highest competitive parity in any rugby competition in the world…so high jeopardy — that’s amazing drama.”
Nailing the gameday experience is job number one, and the essential one at that. But just because you build it, people won’t automatically come. Magleby and his MLR colleagues know there’s power in word of mouth, with friends bringing other friends and talking about how much fun it is to spend an afternoon or evening at a match. That’s the best marketing. But it can’t be the only marketing. And that’s where the art and science of fan development really comes into play.
Major League Rugby matches are accessible and enjoyable for everybody. Having attended matches myself, I can attest to the diversity of the crowds. While Magleby noted the universal appeal for MLR, the league can be smart and savvy about its marketing, ensuring the right messages reach the right people, who are most likely to take that leap, try going to a match, and, inevitably, fall in love with the experience.
“There are probably five different groups that you would want to target,” said Magleby, as we discussed fan personas and cohorts to target. “And again, it really depends on the market, and you’re bringing all these other additional micro audiences, certainly. But there are 40 million Americans right now who say they’re familiar with and fans of rugby in some capacity — whether they played at their college, back in the older generations when it wasn’t as prevalent in high school, people were exposed to it in college. Maybe they got exposed with their company. They went to the Hong Kong Sevens. They went to a Six Nations match in Europe. They’ve had some exposure to rugby. Maybe their children are now playing. So there’s some participation connection. An important demographic to make sure they’re connected to the growth of Major League Rugby and are part of it.
“Then there are people who are looking at the last minute for events to do, and just like to seek out something that’s new.” Magleby continued, saying “There’s an avatar that probably works for everybody. And it’s probably like an early-20-something who’s looking for fun, safe, and affordable. That’s also attractive to the family decision-maker. That’s also attractive to somebody who is connected to rugby. That’s also attractive to the older generation who want to relive that same experience, or the aspirational aspect for a teenager.”
The strongest fan funnels today often flow through athletes. Social media algorithms favor individuals over brands, and young people, especially, gravitate to and cheer for players more than teams. Indeed, the biggest marketing bump for rugby the last few years came from the rise of Ilona Maher, whose star turn for USA Rugby, combined with her equal parts fun, authentic, and vulnerable social presence, drove massive exposure for the sport and made her a nationally known star in the States (and internationally, in the rugby world).
But Maher was the exception. The sport of rugby isn’t necessarily conducive to star-making. It’s a team sport, by design, with a proud culture characterized by humility and a team-first mentality. Magleby knows that marketing star players can drive growth despite those challenges. And the diversity of a rugby roster, similar to football in its mix of thick forwards and lithe wingers, and everything in between, presents compelling opportunities to identify and promote star players and personalities, despite the inherent challenges.
“Rugby historically hasn’t done a great job of [creating and promoting stars], and Major League Rugby is trying to break out of that and have our relatable stories about our players come to the surface…,” said Magleby, a former star himself, as captain of the USA Rugby Sevens team. “Pretty much every personality archetype that’s ever existed in history is probably existing on that field at once. So our issue is not doing a good enough job pulling the one or two out that may be the most connective…
“A lot of those personalities exist in rugby and always have, but they’re behind closed doors. They’re not in the public face. It’s this humility thing. And hopefully this generation, you’re going to start seeing that change as we build up to the 2031 Rugby World Cup.”
The Rugby World Cup is one of the biggest sports events in the world. And it’s coming to the US, the men’s tournament in 2031, followed by the women’s in 2033. Just like Major League Soccer is anticipating the North America-hosted men’s soccer World Cup in 2026, Major League Rugby knows 2031 could be its moment. A massive opportunity to take advantage of a spike in rugby awareness, a chance to draft off that interest and funnel it to MLR.
Magleby mentioned the US-hosted 1994 men’s soccer World Cup driving increased soccer interest in the States, but there was a key difference then — MLS did not yet exist in 1994. MLR will be over a decade old by 2031, and they’ll be more than ready to capitalize, Magleby emphasized.
“Our model is such that we are trying to do everything we possibly can before then to build the systems and aggregate the fandom,” he said. “So when we do get that once-in-a-lifetime moment of a World Cup — the Rugby World Cup, the third largest sporting event in the world — suddenly there are millions of new fans of rugby because of the Rugby World Cup in the United States looking for a place to go, those bridges are already connected. There already is a professional team in your area. You can now get your children to play in these areas.
“You can come and watch this great piece of entertainment of this new sport that you’ve fallen in love with.”
The Rugby World Cup will be one more massive push to get fans to come and sample the product. And that’s the key in all this. Because Magleby and his colleagues are confident that the matchday experience sells itself. From there will emanate the connectors, mavens, and salespeople, to borrow Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point parlance, which, along with the stickiness of the MLR club communal experience, will drive new fans and keep more fans coming back. It’s a virtuous cycle already playing out in MLR markets; Magleby saw it himself in his years atop the New England Free Jacks, and that’s what gives him confidence and conviction in the future of Major League Rugby.
“What’s going to get you to be a part of it and experience it for a lifetime? That’s really where we’re trying to do the work on hyper-community connectivity, almost like a modern-day pub,” he said. “If you go to one of our MLR experiences and you come out of it and say, ‘That was awesome, I met a bunch of people at a coffee shop, and I want to go back — this is like the new town square.’ If we can provide that situation, we know then this will be enormously successful for the long term…
“It’s like this human raw emotion you haven’t experienced in a while. You’re like, ‘I want to have that again.’ And then you stay. There’s good music, you meet the players, you may have your kids with you, they get autographs, you maybe catch up with your college buddies. They suddenly love it. Then that passes on. And that’s what we’re starting to see — that flywheel effect.”
The most effective fan development doesn’t happen in a silo. It’s one fan at a time, until it isn’t. It’s when network effects begin to coalesce that escape velocity can hit. Authentic, contagious fandom isn’t manufactured; it happens organically because the product and experience are undeniable, and people can’t help but share their discovery. The community grows, the k-factor kicks in, and scaling is unstoppable.
Major League Rugby isn’t there yet, but it’s well on the way. So how do you develop new fans? You create an experience and community that, once discovered, fans don’t know how they ever lived without it.
Watch or listen to episode 319 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, in which Neil chatted with Alex Magleby, Co-President of Major League Rugby.
Alex discusses his journey from US national team rugby player and early sports analytics entrepreneur to co-founding the New England Free Jacks and now serving as Co-President of Strategy & Communications at Major League Rugby — and what it’s genuinely taken to build the sport in America from the ground up. He breaks down MLR’s entertainment-first model (live music, post-game field access, family of four for under $100), how the league thinks about fan development one block at a time, and why the 2031 Rugby World Cup is the north star for everything they’re building right now.
Both the NHL and MLS, and their growing women’s counterparts, namely the PWHL and NWSL, have had this year circled for a long time. A year they hope becomes the inflection point that raises the floor and ceiling for fandom and revenue for years to come.
Alex Silverman has been covering it all. As Sports Business Journal‘s lead hockey and soccer business reporter, Silverman is on top of all the hopes and dreams, the narratives, and how 2026 could represent a step-change for these sports or fall short of the sky-high generational expectations.
Soccer fandom has been growing in the US for years. MLS has expanded, and many markets are packing their stadiums. But not all that growth in soccer consumption has gone to MLS. There will be a spike in soccer interest from the World Cup, but Silverman said the jury is still out on how much the expected World Cup bump will benefit MLS.
“I think there will definitely be a bump in interest in soccer. It’s just a matter of — can MLS in particular capture it, or will that interest sort of just be funneled towards the [English Premier League] or [Mexico’s] Liga MX or [Spain’s] La Liga or [UEFA] Champions League?”…
More soccer fans, in any form, in the US is still a net positive, Silverman explained, but there needs to be specific interest in MLS.
“I think it’s important to get every soccer fan in the US to have at least some level of interest in MLS,” he said. “And this is maybe more my opinion than how they view it, but I don’t think it’s really sustainable to have a significant chunk of soccer fans in the US basically be indifferent to what’s happening in MLS and only want to focus on what’s happening in the European leagues.
“There are diehard soccer fans that aren’t interested in MLS, and I think they need to find a way to change that.”
MLS has been on an impressive growth trajectory for years. While their media rights deal with Apple TV has not lived up to the loftiest expectations, the last several years have seen significant spikes in awareness and attention as global stars like Thomas Müller, Son Heung-min, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and, of course, Lionel Messi. While MLS viewership on Apple TV remains a bit opaque, the success of clubs like Inter Miami, riding in Messi’s prodigious wake, increases the confidence that MLS and its clubs are massive businesses worthy of the nine and ten-figure valuations.
“Obviously, a lot of their marketing has focused on Lionel Messi over the last few years,” said Silverman, who has worked for Univision and Cablefax, in addition to his two stints with SBJ. “[Messi] has been front and center, with good reason. What you’ve seen Inter Miami do has really shattered what was previously thought possible for an MLS team. They’re generating over $200 million in revenue. So they’re showing that there is a path — and now granted, there’s only one Lionel Messi — but they’re showing that there is a path to being a major money-maker as a soccer team in the US.”
Inter Miami’s revenue growth is undeniable. But all of these major leagues eye the biggest prize: massive national media rights deals. That’s why the NBA is flying high after inking $77 billion worth of rights agreements across 11 years. Those deals are what drive multi-billion-dollar team valuations and allow leagues to command billions for expansion franchises.
So while Messi and the other stars, along with MLS’s largely excellent live game experience, are driving meaningful revenue streams, it all pales in comparison to what leagues like the NFL find in the figurative couch cushions of their broadcast agreements.
“I think Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Columbus Crew [and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns], last year said at Leaders Week something like, ‘Our media revenue from the Browns is $400 million a year, and our media revenue from the Crew is $4 million a year.’ Right now it’s sort of an in-stadium product, and a lot of teams do well in terms of filling their buildings, but becoming a bigger business and doing more than just operating on thin margins will depend on creating broader appeal and becoming more of a media property.”
The NHL isn’t swimming in media rights revenue like its NFL and NBA counterparts, but the league is no doubt on a higher tier than MLS. And the NHL has benefited from some big national media numbers in the last year or two. Between the 4 Nationals Face-Off, with TV viewership that was higher than even the rosiest prognostications foresaw, and the big buzz and big numbers for the men’s and women’s Olympic teams’ run to the gold medal, there was a positive outlook as the league returned to play following the Winter Games.
While the NHL (as well as the PWHL) each enjoyed the increased interest and engagement, Silverman is still watching to see how much effect the Olympic jolt can have for the NHL — and whether the league missed an opportunity to make the Olympic moment mean even more.
“I don’t necessarily think that a lot of teams had strong plans going into [The Olympics] about how they were going to capitalize on it,” said Silverman, who, in addition to covering the NHL, is a longtime fan of the New York Islanders. “But I think in some markets where there was available seating inventory, you’ve seen some attendance bumps. And they have seen some slight viewership upticks in the weeks coming out of the games. So I’m curious to see how the playoffs this year do on TV.”
That’s the reality. The Olympics are a glorified marketing vehicle for the NHL. A powerful one, to be sure, but big TV ratings for Team USA games and big sales of Team USA jerseys don’t do much directly for the league’s coffers. That’s why the attendance and viewership bumps are nice to see, but, as Silverman noted, the hope is that the league’s biggest and most valuable games, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, see increased national interest, reflected in viewership.
But there’s another shining beacon on the horizon for the NHL, a big best-on-best international tournament that they own, control, and can reap considerable revenue — The World Cup of Hockey (as well as last year’s 4 Nations). Every international game is another supporting point for the NHL when it comes to selling and marketing the World Cup. That’s all part of the calculus for the NHL to disrupt its season and put its players at risk of injury in the middle of the league’s regular season, Silverman explained.
“I definitely think it’s good for the league to participate in these things,” he said; 2026 was, after all, the first time NHL players participated in the Olympics since 2014. “But I think they’re obviously a lot more incentivized to do so when they’re able to get direct revenue upside out of it in addition to building the fans of the future, which is why I think they’re super excited about how the 4 Nations did last year, which is a tournament that they control, and why they’re bringing back the World Cup of Hockey in 2028.
Silverman continued: “I think the biggest opportunity for them to see direct upside from this Olympics is now they’re going to be selling sponsorship for that World Cup of Hockey in 2028 [and] they’re going to be selling the media rights for that tournament. And the league will have good data points to point to from the last two years of international competition to say there are a lot of people who don’t necessarily always watch the NHL who are interested in watching international hockey, and now [they’re] selling international hockey…”
Hockey may have the benefit of Team USA competing for (and achieving) global supremacy in the world’s top tournaments, but soccer has a leg up on participation and barriers to entry. Virtually everybody in the US has played organized soccer or at least knows somebody who has. The same can’t be said for ice hockey. While there are plenty of NHL fans who have never played organized ice hockey (myself included!), the more sparse active exposure is just one more obstacle for hockey fans to be in awe of the athletes.
With less organic exposure to hockey, the NHL has to make the most of any chances to seize the spotlight. Silverman talked about this challenge for the NHL, and what they can do to capitalize when opportunities arise.
“The challenge with hockey has been the same challenge as always — participation in hockey is still fairly niche,” he said. “If you grew up playing hockey, you understand how incredible some of the things that these players are doing on the ice are, and you’re just more exposed to it. I think the Olympics went a long way in getting people that might not have necessarily been watching to watch.
“There’s been a lot of talk about whether something like [hit HBO show] Heated Rivalry will get more people interested in hockey. Anything that gets hockey more into the cultural zeitgeist is helpful. You’ve seen a little bit of a Heated Rivalry bump and an Olympic bump. So creating those kinds of moments where the players can break out beyond just the NHL media bubble is helpful.”
Both hockey and soccer are getting better at creating stories and moments that transcend their core audiences, and capitalizing when serendipity smiles upon them with something unexpected. They’re each chasing relevance; they’re seeking attention and engagement in an increasingly crowded ecosystem, full of endless feeds and infinite options, where the next thing is just tap or swipe away.
The question is what the results of these spikes really mean. Going viral isn’t a strategy, but neither is virality, once achieved, a guarantee of business success. More exposure has to be funneled to more audience capture, consumption, conversion, and fan growth, which, ultimately, translates to dollars that can support short-term growth and develop new cohorts and generations of fans at every level. As Silverman reports on the business strategies, challenges, and opportunities for hockey and soccer, he’s looking at the surface-level metrics, but also scrutinizing and digging deeper into what lies beneath.
“It’s great if you have a lot of people watching your highlights on social media,” he said, “but the revenue associated with that isn’t the same as the revenue associated with live rights. And as we’re seeing media companies be more selective with where they’re spending their revenue, you’re starting to see more properties popping up.
“The main revenue streams for any sports property are basically media, ticketing, and sponsorship. And in a lot of cases, there’s just not really media revenue to be had. I think that’s the challenge with people saying, ‘Oh, well, that’s not really the best way to evaluate our property,’ it helps to try and get a sense of what their business model is, how much of their revenue comes from media versus sponsorship versus ticketing and game-day revenue. There are a lot of things to consider there.”
It all has to result in something of substance. Regardless of the makeup of the revenue pie — and the next era of sports business models may indeed look different than the current one — the pie has to be big to get where these teams, leagues, and sports entities want to go.
“A year from now, 2026 will have told us a lot — not just whether a World Cup creates lasting soccer converts or a gold medal drives new hockey households, but whether the business infrastructure behind these leagues is sophisticated enough to capture the moment when it arrives. As Silverman put it, ‘the verdict is still out on whether it’ll increase interest in the core product.’ That’s the question the whole industry is watching.”
On episode 317 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Alex Silverman, Reporter for Sports Business Journal, covering hockey and soccer business.
Watch or listen to episode 318 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast in which Neil chatted with Alex Silverman, Reporter for Sports Business Journal covering hockey and soccer business.
Alex discusses why 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for both hockey and soccer in the US — from the NHL’s push to develop its next generation of stars and the excitement around the World Cup this summer to MLS navigating its calendar to align more with the global football calendar. He also shares his perspective on where each league stands in the broader American sports media landscape, and what it will take for both to capitalize on the moment.
On episode 317 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Jaelyn Arndt, Associate Director of Communications – Social Media for the NCAA.
The NCAA has been around since 1906. Social media has not. Bridging that gap, and doing so across 1,100+ schools, three very different divisions, and more than half a million student-athletes who come and go every year, is a unique challenge for Jaelyn Arndt and her team.
The NCAA has a broad mission, encompassing the support of countless past, present, and future student-athletes. And social media is undeniably one of the most powerful tools in the quiver now — but it’s only impactful if wielded to the fullest extent, efficiently and effectively. So how do you help usher a century-old institution into the social media age? Start with the basics.
“We have evolved and we’re being social on social, we’re doing best practices,” said Arndt, a former NCAA Division III volleyball player in her days as a student-athlete. “We have really dove into each platform, but now we are maturing in the way of that maybe not every piece of content needs to hit every platform. Or hey, if we’re going to post on Instagram but we also need it on Facebook, we’re building that content for the platform. So it may not be the same piece of media, but it’s the same story because we know what works on each platform. And I think that just came with maturity. It came with having boundaries and being able to say no, being able to say yes.”
Developing platform-specific packaging and approaches was step one. As Arndt noted, too, getting the NCAA to be more thoughtful about content production and distribution was an integral step; she added later that the organization has a lot of room to grow on TikTok, for example, but needs to dedicate the appropriate time and effort there to make sure they do it right. Alongside getting the content right, there’s the ever-important voice and tone.
In the earliest days of social media, voice, most often conveyed in copy, was mostly staid; then, through memes, GIFs, replies, and just pure content vibes, which gave way to eras of snark, absurdity, and everything in between. The NCAA has to be thoughtful, but intentional; careful but convicted. Arndt and her team appreciate the challenge of speaking and posting on behalf of an organization that wants to celebrate the joy and inspiration of college sports and student-athletes, but also leave room for straightforward and serious explanations of the rules and regulations the NCAA oversees and communicates. Arndt described the NCAA’s voice and presence on social.
“We kind of gave ourselves a character of the proud auntie,” said Arndt, who said the strategy is centered around ‘cultivating community.’ “So the NCAA is here to uplift you, support you. We are your biggest cheerleaders, but we’re also going to keep it real with you when there are new rules or new legislation that passes.
“We’re going to not talk at you, we’re talking with you. And those are things that come from comments. It’s engaging with the student athletes. It’s sharing their content. It’s doing social first. It’s being able to take a structured in-venue video and then creating a social-first piece that’s going to hit with our target audience, which is always the student athletes.”
As the NCAA has been molding its social media strategy, a massive college athletics media complex has continued to grow. Schools, as well as student-athletes themselves, are telling their own stories and creating their own content — and lots of it. Let alone all of the players in the larger media ecosystem, ESPN, Yahoo, Bleacher Report, FOX Sports, The Athletic, and tons of others. So where does that leave the NCAA? In an ocean of content, where and when should the NCAA surface?
“Where we sit, it’s really being strategic because we have access to footage that not everybody else does,” said Arndt, who also spoke about being mindful of covering and amplifying stories across all three divisions and across all sports, as much as possible. “Especially if someone has already been at a championship or we have all this footage that hasn’t even seen the light of day. So that’s a really easy way for us to come in on the story with our assets that no one else has.”
Arndt also spoke about this approach as it pertains to the biggest annual NCAA properties: men’s and women’s March Madness.
“You have to take advantage of where your credential gets you because these are our championships. We have the access and everyone is already seeing where the ESPN camera is, but are you back-of-house or are you getting locker room? Are you getting the legacy court drop? Where can we be that not everybody else can see? And that’s where you’re going to have those breakthrough moments.”
The NCAA can also come at stories with a unique lens. Because while most media outlets will skew toward athletic feats and storylines, the NCAA has a bigger picture frame and more diverse content buckets. As much focus as there is on the incredible achievements in pools, arenas, and stadiums (and the NCAA elevates those stories, too), the student-athlete experience is unique. The NCAA seeks to capture that, always ready with the story and the next level or two beyond, too.
“It’s a lot — you have to be knowledgeable of this story or this athlete,” Arndt explained. “Were they at a national championship? Do they hold an NCAA record? Were they a Woman of the Year or an elite scholar? Any awards that we give out, that’s kind of where we can chime in with our own storytelling effort, if ESPN or someone else jumped in there.
Arndt continued: “For us, it’s really about diversifying the feeds, getting different stories out there that hit different pillars for us. And then to me, it’s using our platforms to help continue to build the student athletes’ brands. You see these people and their amazing stories, and they’re trying to build out their followers. A lot of these athletes don’t become professional athletes, and so if they want to talk about what they want to do post-sport — yeah, let’s get that on our account because I’m sure someone here would love to hire you after you graduate.”
It always comes back to the student-athletes. They’re the main characters in these stories; they’re the humans whose achievements get immortalized in highlights and headlines, and whose emotions fans can’t help but feel viscerally and vicariously. So, one of the most important jobs for Arndt and her team with the NCAA is to study up on the student-athletes. They have to know about the stories out there worth telling, who could fit a certain structure or category that’ll resonate with fans and followers, and how best to work with the student-athletes who find themselves in the spotlight.
“Pre-production and research will always be your best friend, and I think people sleep on that a little bit in the social space,” said Arndt, who has been with the NCAA since 2022. “There’s just so much that goes into it. If you do your research on an athlete, you’re going to know which one is a social person and who’s not. So when you’re reaching out to make the ask to do a ‘get ready with me,’ I would hope you did your research, and you find that this person has done a ‘get ready with me’ once a week for the past five months, and you’re like, that’s the best candidate.”
The dedication to research and preparation came to a head in early 2026, as the NCAA had the opportunity to travel to Italy to work the Olympics and Paralympics, which were chock full of current and former NCAA student-athletes. The operation in Milan was a great microcosm of how the NCAA serves its mission, its members, and its past, present, and future student-athletes. Arndt described what the NCAA sought to do in Italy and the incredible output and success they were able to send and bring back home.
“Our goal was to, one, create content for the membership and conferences, schools back home,” said Arndt, who expressed excitement and anticipation about what the NCAA will be able to do when the Olympic Games come to LA in 2028. “So we would ask questions, upload it to a Google Drive, send an email out, notify them, and then [schools and conferences] could create, edit whatever content we got and post on their accounts. Second was creating content for the NCAA channels. And that was a huge success. We got to sit down with 63 athletes who came through and do interviews with them. It was literally insane.
Arndt elaborated further: “Diving into all of their stories, we made combo pieces, personality pieces. But it’s unreal to think about. For us, it’s really telling the pipeline of the Olympic athletes that start at the NCAA. Winter Games is fun because you have athletes who were track and field or a swimmer, and now they’re on the Team USA bobsled team. And you’re like, how in the world did you end up here? Tell us about that.”
The NCAA has been dealing with changes for generations. The internet gave way to social media, giving all schools and student-athletes a platform. NIL augmented the already-growing student-athlete brands. The NCAA had to adapt, pick up new tools, develop modern approaches, and figure out how to keep making an impact — for the student-athletes who compete and the fans who live and die with their schools. It’s an ongoing evolution that Arndt continues to shepherd today.
But even amidst all the billions in media rights deals and the millions in NIL deals and revenue sharing, there remains a special purity in college athletics. And yet, with all the humanizing stories and lifestyle content pieces in pro sports, it’s still hard to see ourselves in those larger-than-life athletes. But with student-athletes, it’s never been only about sports. For four years, they earn the admiration and attention of fans, but it’s just a short time in their lives and one part of their story. Arndt and her team will continue to showcase all of it. They’ll be the proud auntie cheering on the student-athletes, making the most of those years on campus. While for each of them, their time as a collegiate athlete is but a short chapter in their lives, their stories can inspire and have an impact forever.
Watch or listen to episode 317 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast in which Neil chatted with Jaelyn Arndt, Associate Director of Communications – Social Media for the NCAA.
Jaelyn discusses the NCAA’s social media strategy and how she and her team are building and evolving the brand across platforms. She breaks down the NCAA’s brand voice, the challenge and opportunity of storytelling across all three divisions, what she looks for when hiring for social media roles, how she approaches measuring success beyond the traditional metrics, and what goes into covering marquee moments like March Madness.
Comprehensive insights into the San Diego Mojo volleyball match, covering fan engagement, venue setup, merchandise, player interactions, and in-game entertainment at Viejas Arena in March 2026.
