College Sports Information Directors of America

NEW ORLEANS – Todd Stewart, who has served as the Sun Belt Conference’s Associate Commissioner for Communications since February 2005, has accepted the position of Associate Athletics Director/Communications at Western Kentucky University.

Stewart will begin his duties at WKU effective June 1.

“Todd has made a tremendous impact on the Sun Belt Conference,” said Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Wright Waters. “He has moved us as a league from simply reporting stats to engagement with the media. We will miss Todd, Rebecca and Blake but we are delighted they are moving to a conference school.”

Stewart joined the Sun Belt after working in the National Football League for the previous 15 years, including six years as the Executive Director of Communications and Media Relations for the Cleveland Browns. Stewart worked for nine years in the Indianapolis Colts public relations office (1990-1998) before joining the Browns in March of 1999.

At the Sun Belt, the Cincinnati, Ohio native managed a four-person staff responsible for internal and external communications for all Sun Belt Conference publicity. Stewart was responsible for planning the conference’s football and basketball media days, managing and implementing special projects such as the conference’s recent 30th Anniversary Celebration, and promoting the league through the conference’s television package, web site, publications and press releases.

“I really appreciate the opportunity Commissioner Waters provided me 40 months ago,” Stewart said. “My time in the conference office was a tremendous experience, and it is gratifying to see so many things heading in such a positive direction for the conference and its schools. I will always value the many relationships developed during this time.”

He served as the conference’s primary contact for men’s basketball, and was the conference liaison with ESPN/ERT and the school’s athletic directors in developing the Sun Belt’s annual football and basketball television schedule. He spearheaded the conference’s first-ever baseball and softball television package by helping formulate an agreement between the conference and broadcast partners Comcast/Charter Southeast Sports (CSS) and Cox Sports Television (CST). He also served on the BCS Media Relations Committee for college football’s 2008 National Championship Game.

Stewart worked on the NFL’s public relations staff at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans, Super Bowl XXVII in Los Angeles, three consecutive AFC Championship Games (1997-99) and as the AFC public relations representative at the 2000 Pro Bowl in Hawaii. He also served on the NFL’s media policies committee and on the Board of Directors of the Cleveland Touchdown Club. He was a member of the Colts public relations staff awarded the 1996 Pete Rozelle Award, an annual honor bestowed to the NFL’s top PR staff as voted by the Pro Football Writers of America.

Stewart obtained a B.S. in communications from Miami (Ohio) University in 1988 and received the Miami University Parents’ Council Award for outstanding service to the university. He worked as a graduate assistant in the sports information department at the University of Tennessee from 1988-90 while also pursuing a master’s degree in communications. He assisted the sports information staff with football and men’s basketball while at UT.

He and his wife, Rebecca, have a son, Blake, 8.