In March of this year, Louisiana Tech’s newest vice president and director of athletics Ryan Ivey began his tenure at the helm of the department and recently sat down with reporters at the LPJ for a Q&A. The conversation has been lightly edited for continuity.
LPJ: “In the meetings you mentioned before, you said there are some recurring themes. Let’s start with the positives. What are the strengths that you’ve identified for Louisiana Tech’s athletics department?”
Ivey: “The people is our overall number one strength and positive. That’s people within the department, people outside of the department, and people on campus. And I’ve said for a long time, people make the place. If you get good people around you, then you’ve got a chance to have success. That’s been indicative of this athletics department for a long time, that it’s been able to have success because they’ve had really good people, really in and out of it. So that’s been first and foremost.
“Number two, I think people recognize the history and tradition that Louisiana Tech has from an athletic department standpoint in the brand that has been built as a byproduct of that success. That, to me, is something that you can’t replicate, right? You may have all the money in the world, but if you can’t replicate a strong brand in the marketplace and you can’t replicate a history of success and a proven track record of success, then it’s hard for people to really get on board with you.
“I think our location or location geography has come up quite a bit as a positive, and especially from a recruiting standpoint mean, think about where we are. We’re located really five to six hours from a lot of quality student athletes. Think about the state of Louisiana, and think about East Texas, Houston, Dallas. You can get into Mississippi from a junior college standpoint, right? You can get into Texas from a junior college standpoint and get up in Kansas and in Arkansas. So you’ve got the opportunity, I think, to have a broad range and a good radius of opportunities to really get quality student athletes that can help us have success from that standpoint.
“And then probably the last one, it’s just the opportunity that we have. And a lot of people have talked about that they feel like Tech is on the cusp of turning into something really, really successful. I think that is indicative to (Louisiana Tech president Dr. Jim Henderson) and the vision that he has right now for for the entire university. I think there’s energy and momentum around that. Me, coming in new and seeing it from a different perspective, I think is is energizing some folks, as well. I think ultimately I think there’s a synergy that’s starting to happen that I think is going to allow us to have success because I truly believe this athletics is the front porch of the institution. Now, anybody that’s been in real estate, you’ll know that you can’t sell a front porch without a house. So that house that we’re connected to is our institution. And what are we doing to help create opportunities for growth within the institution and how we’re creating opportunities for exposure and awareness.”
LPJ: “How about some of the pressure points you’re hearing, as well?”
Ivey: “I think first and foremost is just the college athletics in general today, and what’s going on in the landscape and the ever-evolving landscape. That’s a challenge for us being able to to manage name, image and likeness (NIL), being able to manage the transfer portal, being able to manage what student athlete compensation is — just understanding that there is something coming. And we’ve got to make sure that we’re we’re seeing that right and trying to see around the curve with it, but also knowing that we’re not going to be all things to all people too, right? We are who we’re going to be, and that’s okay. I think that that’s been a challenge.
“I also think finances in general. I hear that quite a bit. I hear “Well, you know, we don’t have enough. We need more.” Which is probably true across every unit on campus.So I’m certainly not saying that’s not something, but the question that I always ask in those meetings is are we utilizing what we have in an efficient, effective manner? Can we do something different? Can we change our approach in what we’re doing? We’ve got to make sure we’re being good stewards of the resources being provided to us. And I think that conversation is in there as well.
“Then, quite honestly, staffing comes up quite a bit — the need for more staff in the building, especially in our student athlete welfare areas. I think that’s something that we’ve got to address and making sure that we’re creating opportunities to have the appropriate staffing levels from a strength and conditioning standpoint, sport performance to sports medicine to our academic advisors and mental health access. We’ve got to make sure that we’re investing in our student athletes from a mental health standpoint, as well. All those things that touch our student athletes that allow to have success. And so we’ve got to make sure we’re investing in those areas.”
LPJ: “What are some short term things you are planning to address these areas?”
Ivey: “I think first and foremost, we really would like to try to create some opportunities for, for collaboration and partnership on campus. I call it utilizing the genius in the room and using the human resource capital that we have. There are things that we’re doing on campus right now that we may be able to partner with and have opportunities to help with our students, and it may not be the long term solution, but it could bridge the gap for us right now. So what are those opportunities on campus that we have with the subject matter experts in these fields, that can help us create and really enhance our student athlete experience? That’s first and foremost.
“I think the other thing is creating an opportunity for dialog and creating an opportunity for people to voice their opinions. If we can listen and create opportunities for open dialog, such as the Tech Talks that we’ll talk about here in a minute. We want to be listening and paying attention, making sure that we’re hearing what it’s going to take to make sure that we’re creating a good fan experience, for those in and around those that are coming, but also those that are consuming our product, that aren’t coming down to home events — what can we do to make sure that we’re creating opportunities for that? The example that we had was increasing the offerings that we had for baseball and softball on stream with ESPN+ — that was something important to me, and I think it was important to our staff, as well, to make sure that our people outside can make sure they’re consuming and having the opportunity to really watch our student athletes and teams compete in that area.
“I think as we continue to move forward and we look at revenue generation — that’s going to come in different forms in different fashions. So we’ve got to really look at it as an entire revenue generation unit. How are each of these, revenue generating tools that we have — how are they complementing one another, and what are we doing and making sure that we’re maximizing those? That’s going to take some time; it’s not going to happen overnight. I think if we can put those things in place and start to have success.
“The last thing I would tell you, I think it’s about trying to build relationships with our students as well. Think Kyle Kavanaugh (Louisiana Tech Associate Athletics Director of External Operations). He’s done a a marvelous job with the Student Engagement Committee. I had a chance to meet with them last week and went through some of my planning questions, and I heard their opinions on some things. I wanted to engage them at a rate that they feel like they’re being heard. Again, if they have that ownership and then hopefully we can create that opportunity where they want to come in and enjoy their time and enjoy their experience as a student here, knowing that athletics is a part of that experience.”
LPJ: “Would you talk a little more about your upcoming Tech Talk series?”
Ivey: “The genesis behind it and the idea is to create a series of opportunities that we can get in front of people and have some pointed conversations about specific areas that maybe affect our fan experience. One of the things that I’ve heard in the community and since I’ve been here is that we used to have a really robust tailgating experience that maybe has fallen by the wayside a little bit and has gone down. So naturally, I wanted to see what can we do to to start there right now? I think that was a good starting place for us, because I think it creates an opportunity for dialog across multiple people.
“And I know that not everybody will be able to come to Ruston for every Tech Talk, but we’ll figure out a ways to make sure that we’re connecting with those outside. But the idea is to just have that conversation. What is it that we’re doing right with tailgating? But what are the friction points, if you will, that creates barriers for entry, and if we can remove those friction points, we’ve got to make sure that we’re overcoming those things that prevent people from having a great experience. As we go over time, I hope, that these will continue across multiple platforms. And we’ll do itfor multiple different things. But I think right now, it’s about creating an opportunity for me to learn, and certainly get the input from others as well.”
LPJ: “Ryan, thank you for your time.”
