Central Michigan University Athletics
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06/29/2017
Michael Alford Interview
Adam Jaksa sat down with incoming Athletic Director Michael Alford in advance of his official start date of July 3rd. Topics covered include Alford's diverse administrative background and his enthusiasm for joining the CMU and Mount Pleasant communities.
Alford's first official day with CMU was July 3, and the senior executive with a strong history of fundraising and marketing was chosen after a national search. Alford, 48, was the senior associate athletics director for administration and development at the University of Oklahoma for the past five years.
He replaced Dave Heeke, who left CMU to become the vice president of athletics at the University of Arizona. Alford is the seventh athletics director at CMU since 1940.
Alford recently planned and managed a $160 million end zone facility project at Oklahoma, and he led several other capital campaigns, such as:
• Basketball: The $7 million Blake Griffin Performance Center scheduled to open in 2018.
• Basketball: Enhancements to the men's basketball locker rooms and offices.
• Golf: The 11-acre Jerry Ransom Short Course scheduled to open later this year.
At Oklahoma, Alford led development, marketing, oversaw several sports, was part of the Title IX, gender equity and diversity and inclusion teams, negotiated corporate sponsorship agreements and helped manage master plans for facilities.
He also led a period of rapid growth in the Sooner Club, the primary fund-raising group at Oklahoma. Under Alford's leadership, the Sooner Club set annual giving records for donations each year from 2013 to 2017, and membership increased to an all-time high of more than 12,000. He also established the Sooner Club's Young Alumni program.
At Oklahoma, Alford's team was also responsible for coordinating capital campaigns. Chief among those endeavors was his coordination of the capital campaign of a $370 million renovation and modernization of Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
Alford was recognized by College AD's panel of athletic directors as one of the 2016's "Next Up," a listing of senior-level administrators whom respected ADs identify as ready to take the next step and become an athletic director.
Before arriving at OU, Alford was the senior director for corporate partnerships and sales for the Dallas Cowboys from 2008 to 2012, and he was the general manager of Crimson Tide Sports Marketing at the University of Alabama from 2004-2008. He also has worked for ESPN, the University of Southern California, the Cincinnati Bengals and the University of Cincinnati.
As the senior director of corporate partnerships and sales for the Dallas Cowboys, Alford cultivated corporate relationships that resulted in more than $400 million in contractual revenue for the club. He managed all aspects of programming for Cowboys Stadium, a state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2009 and has hosted numerous marquee events, including Super Bowl XLV.
Alford oversaw the management and day-to-day operations for the marketing and sales department for the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
As the general manager of Crimson Tide Sports Marketing, Alford managed all aspects of marketing and media rights agreements. He also served as an assistant to the director of athletics, where his duties included serving on search committees while overseeing the negotiation and implementation of coaching contracts.
Alford's responsibilities at Alabama included strategic planning, as well as the recruitment, management and training of the marketing and promotional staff. He was also part of a senior management team that planned and implemented improvements to athletics facilities.
As a sports sales manager for ESPN, Alford developed media rights sales plans for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and oversaw media and stadium sponsorships. At University of Southern California, he was involved in sponsorships, merchandising and contract negotiations, as well as the development of the Galen Events Center.
Alford's initial foray into professional sports came with the Cincinnati Bengals from 1997-2000. He served as director of group sales and corporate entertainment and as a corporate sales executive, securing sponsorships, in addition to managing suite and club seat sales for Paul Brown Stadium. He began his career in collegiate athletics as the assistant director of marketing at the University of Cincinnati from 1996-97.
Alford played baseball at Mississippi State University and at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, from which he earned a bachelor's degree in communications arts in 1993. He completed his master's degree in athletics administration at the University of Arkansas in 1995.
Alford's wife, Laura, played volleyball at Hawaii and coached at Cincinnati. Their daughter, Audrey Alford, is a junior volleyball player at Oklahoma. Daughters Ashley, 16, and Anna Leigh, 13, also play volleyball.