Luck hired to lead ASUN-WAC partnership
1:33 PM ET Pete ThamelESPN Longtime college and expert sports executive Oliver Luck has been caused
as the executive director of the new football collaboration in between the ASUN Conference and the Western Athletic Conference, the conferences revealed on Thursday.Luck is signing up with the league as a consultant and will start immediately. He’s the former athletic director at West Virginia and a former NCAA executive who has worked in different pro sports.ESPN reported last month that the football members of the WAC and ASUN are banding together with the ultimate aspiration to end up being a Football Bowl Neighborhood conference. A formal name has yet to be selected. The league hopes to start play in 2024, which is expected to be in the FCS.The hiring of Luck is another indication, per sources, that the league has embraced basic governance structure and is moving forward. The football-only partnership consists of WAC football members Stephen
F. Austin, Abilene Christian, Utah Tech, Southern Utah and Tarleton State. The Atlantic Sun members are Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, Central Arkansas and North Alabama. The 10th member is UT Rio Grande Valley, which is anticipated to take part 2025 for that program’s very first football season.The management of the group will be Eastern Kentucky president David McFaddin and Tarleton State president James Hurley, who will function as co-chairs.” Oliver Luck is among the most reputable leaders in NCAA sports, “said Hurley
in a statement. “He brings an incredible quantity of knowledge, passion, and expertise to our common and unified objective. He will work collaboratively
with our commissioners, presidents and athletic directors to ensure that our football conference is among the very best in the country.”The addition of Luck offers the aspirational group a reliability increase, as he has actually done everything from finish as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship while a star quarterback at West Virginia to bet the Houston Oilers. He’s likewise an attorney who worked as the CEO
of NFL Europe, the president of the Houston Dynamo of the MLS and commissioner of the XFL. He’s currently the chairman of Altius Sports Partners.Luck will work collaboratively with the ASUN and WAC as they attempt to create this new pathway from the FCS to FBS, per sources. The timing of that potential relocation is uncertain. Luck and commissioners Ted Gumbart of the ASUN and Brian Thornton of the WAC have been in touch to assistant in the merger of the league’s football programs and assist create a course forward.