It was about a decade ago that Alic’a Oliver earned her JD at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University.
Since then, she has emerged as one of collegiate athletics’ leading voices when it comes NCAA compliance issues as well as the emerging areas around women’s rights and DEI.
Currently the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Compliance & Impact at the University of North Texas (UNT), she is tasked with oversight of the compliance office and staff, providing support to UNT administrators, coaches, staff, and student-athletes in 16 varsity sport programs. Among other duties, she serves as the staff advisor to the UNT Black Student-Athlete Community group.
Significantly, she is also a member of the National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC), where she was elected as an officer of the organization’s Board of Directors after serving as Chair of the Professional Development Committee. Heading into the current year, she serves as First-Vice President of NAAC.
The learn more about Missouri City, Texas native, who also earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Texas, we sought her out for the following exclusive interview.
Question: How you got your start in athletics compliance?
Answer: While attending law school, I started considering the idea of becoming a sports agent. As I learned more about that industry, I realized that I didn’t necessarily have the personality for that. So, I talked to my college adviser at the law school, and she suggested compliance, pointing out that LSU has a really good athletic compliance office, and that I should check into an internship.
Taking her advice, I hounded Andrew Donovan and Blair Napolitano for weeks. Ultimately, they took me on as a legal extern and so I worked with them for two years. They really showed me the ropes. They exposed me to all the positives, and the benefits of this type of career. And it was just a great mesh of everything that I love about research and creative problem solving. It also kind of weaves the opportunity to work in sports with students. It was something that I grew to love and was lucky enough to get a full-time position when I finished the internship.
Q: What happened after the internship?
A: I applied to several opportunities that were popping up as I was finishing law school. Kansas State offered me a position and I started there a month or so before I graduated from law school. It worked out perfectly in terms of timing.
Then, I left Kansas State when I had an opportunity to rejoin my old boss at LSU, Andrew Donovan, who was moving on to Tennessee.
From Tennessee, I went to North Texas, where I’ve been for six years.
Q: Tell us about how you interact with the General Counsel’s office there?
A: I have a great relationship with that office. There are obviously lots of things that we have to navigate, given the changing legal landscape of collegiate athletics. We will call each other up to see what each is hearing in their respective worlds. Our contact provides updates and is always open to reviewing forms or new policies we are creating. They’ve been great partners.
Q: That has to be pretty satisfying for you, given your law degree?
A: It’s awesome because as you mentioned, I have that background and training. While I can’t give advice, I can give them my thoughts, “If I were in this position, this is what I would consider.” Having that relationship with the general counsel’s office and being able to contribute is helpful for my athletic department as we figure out how to strategically move forward in a lot of different areas.
Q: What do you like most about your current role?
A: What I love about my position at North Texas is that we are a big athletic department, but we’re small enough to where I’m not pigeonholed into just compliance. I have other responsibilities. I have oversight of our men’s and women’s track and field teams. I oversee our inclusion and impact space. I’ve helped with Title IX monitoring and education. It’s been great because I’m able to expand within internal operations.
Also, I would say the student athlete experience is very important to me. We’ve built a culture here and especially within my unit in compliance, that our students feel comfortable coming to us. Our coaches feel comfortable coming to us. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s definitely our student athletes that excite me and keep me in this profession. I have a bulletin board on my wall that’s filled with their pictures from graduation. And so, when our younger students come in and see that, that’s their aspiration to be able to get their picture on my board. When they finally do there’s a sense of achievement. That’s why I love this position.
Q: What are the biggest challenges associated with the job?
A: It’s really the constantly changing landscape. We’re trying to figure out how to be strategic in a world that you can’t really be strategic in. You don’t know what’s going to change next. At the same time, you are trying to figure out how to be competitive. You’re trying to help our student athletes be successful even though you may not have them for four years, like you did before. Now, you may just get them for a year or two. So, you try to figure out how to give them a great experience, how to retain student athletes, and how to retain our staff. That’s a huge one at our level because the athletics grind is not for everyone. And I think the younger professionals coming in don’t necessarily know or understand that.
So, we’re trying to maneuver in the world that we currently live, while also trying to help our young people become leaders in the industry. When we talk about that as an officer group at NAAC, we’re talking about how we can navigate the changes in the landscape and rebrand compliance as valuable, not just occupying the function of monitoring a rule book. We’re evaluating risk and bringing value to the department in terms of strategy. You need to be able to maneuver within many gray areas. We need to strategize and solve problems and be flexible.
Q: Can you talk about NAAC and your growing role in leading the association?
A: I started off as a committee member on the education and professional development committee. It was a great experience in that I was able to help craft objectives from an education standpoint and from a growth in the profession standpoint. I was on that committee for a few years before I was selected to be the chair of that committee. Then I joined the NAAC board. A couple years later, I was voted to an officer position. Now, I will be president in our next academic year. It’s definitely been a journey. Being able to see the growth and changes that we as officers are trying to make, while being the voice for our membership, has been very rewarding. It’s really amazing and it’s promising because I think people have a negative idea of college sports right now and I think a lot of people are just wanting to get out. But I see promise, I see opportunities for us to really help mold what this looks like.
I represent a group of five schools and the mid majors, which is the majority of the industry from a Division I perspective. So how are we going to make sure that we continue to have a seat at that table and to mold what the future looks like? And NAAC is a great a vehicle for us to be able to do that.
Q: What trends are you tracking?
A: For the most part, the trends I’m tracking from a national standpoint are obviously the retention of and the growth within our industry of the staff. And then there’s trying to figure out how to now navigate a world that is going to look completely different a year or two from now. I’m trying to really mold and help people understand that. If you want to be in this business because you are very black and white and you like rules, that’s not this industry anymore. We have to figure out how to be nimble, how to solve problems. We have to figure out how to add value and to assess risk. And so that’s really the changing mindset that I see happening and that’s going to affect everything else that we do, that’s going to affect how we govern. So, trying to really wrap your mind around the shift in mindset is probably the biggest trend and challenge that we’re tracking.
