Much was made in mid-April about Georgia Tech University’s new basketball coach and how he asked candidates for the assistant job if they played golf. If so, the head coach immediately disqualified them from the position since it meant they might not have the time to focus on the job.
Well, don’t try defending that logic with the powers-that-be at Penn State University. Six years ago, they hired golf enthusiast Matthew Stolberg as Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and Student-Athlete Services, and the department has soared to new heights.
Maybe that precision and mental acuity that great golfers almost always have came in handy in this case. Decades ago, Stolberg was assistant golf professional at Kittanning Country Club in Kittanning, PA. If he wasn’t a compliance director, he would be working somewhere in the golf industry, he told the Journal of NCAA Compliance.
But alas, compliance professional he is and the industry is better for it.
Stolberg began his career with stints at St. Bonaventure University, Northwestern University, and Michigan State University before earning a high-profile spot as the University of Michigan’s Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance since 2001. At Ann Arbor, he coordinated eligibility certification for the school’s 800 student-athletes in 25 sports. In addition to those duties, Stolberg managed incoming student-athletes, outgoing transfers and directed rules education programming for coaches and staff.
Then came the opportunity at Penn State, where he was asked in 2010 to oversee the integration of Student-Athlete Services (SAS) within the compliance operation. The idea was the integration of SAS would expand the compliance staff and better align the overall compliance effort within Intercollegiate Athletics. Mission accomplished.
What follows is an interview with Stolberg.
Question: Let’s start by talking about your years at Michigan. Eight years can be a long time at one place. What did you learn at Michigan that helped you become a better compliance professional?
Answer: Each sport program at Michigan was nationally relevant and expected to compete for championships year in and year out. That environment certainly raised the stakes and made delivering a comprehensive compliance program that protected the institution while still serving the coaches’ needs extra challenging. I was fortunate during these years to be working under Judy Van Horn, who is currently a Senior Associate Athletic Director and SWA at South Carolina. She helped me navigate these challenges. I had done compliance long enough to know the rules at that point, but she helped me understand how to think strategically, deal with crisis situations and manage the political aspects of the job. These lessons have served me well since then.
Q: What was the thought process when the Penn State job became available?
A: Working in the Big Ten Conference for many years gave me an opportunity to evaluate Penn State, get to know its people and learn how things operated. My predecessor, John Bove, did a great job setting the table with very little in the way of staffing and resources. When he retired, Penn State made a commitment to expanding and modernizing the compliance operation. Having an opportunity to direct that process at an institution as successful as Penn State in the classroom and on the playing field was too appealing to ignore.
Q: When surprised you the most when you rolled up your sleeves and got started at Penn State?
A: Penn State was far more open to change than many would have given it credit for once the compliance operation began to change. We installed a more robust rules education program, enhanced monitoring systems, and began requiring coaches and staff to use more technology based compliance systems. Coaches and staff got on board quickly, embraced that changes and were genuinely supportive of the changes that came with growth and modernization.
Q: Much was made over the NCAA’s sanctions and the impact they were going to have. PSU seemed to come out fine the other side. Why?
A: There are so many answers to this question, but I think some of the keys were the phenomenal leadership capabilities of some of the individuals involved, such as our former football coach Bill O’Brien and the responsiveness of the university during the period the sanctions were in place.
Q: Much was also written in general, and specifically with regard to Penn State, about the tension that can or does exist between coaches and the compliance staff. What is the best advice you can give for easing that tension?
A: Compliance professionals need to find a way to create a relationship with the coaches they work with that goes beyond monitoring, telling them the rules and reporting violations. To do this, I think it is really important to take steps to understand what is important to each coach individually. Some coaches like to receive lots of individual communication, while others don’t want to be bothered unless it is really important. My advice is to manufacture opportunities to get as much face time with coaches as possible and take steps to ensure that they see the bigger picture of how compliance can help their program.
Q: What will be the biggest challenge for compliance departments in the coming years?
A: I think the challenge moving forward is the pace of change in our field. It will be a challenge for compliance staff to keep on top of things, but really difficult to make sure that everyone else in the Department understands too. The new (and long overdue) focus on the student-athlete experience and rights will generate new legislation that will require policy changes, monitoring system overhaul and significant educational programming. Throw in rapidly changing technology, legal challenges and financial uncertainty and you have an ideal recipe for change.
Q: If you weren’t a compliance professional, what would you be doing and why?
A: My athletics compliance career started after I spent four years as a golf professional at a private club in Western PA. So, I am pretty sure that if I was not doing compliance full-time, I would be involved in the golf industry, as a coach, club professional or working for a professional tour.
Q: What is the best advice you can give as far as managing a team of compliance professionals?
A: The the key to developing and retaining a staff of compliance professionals is to keep each staff member involved in as many facets of the operation as possible. It is easy for us to have staff members who specialize in a specific function within the office, but that does not prepare them to oversee an entire operation down the road. I try each day to put my staff on the spot as often as possible for decisions that are outside their realm of responsibilities or that I know will test their capabilities. This keeps work interesting while also developing their ability to handle such situations once they are in charge.
