College Sports Information Directors of America

“Sam has been an invaluable addition to our team over the last few years. Very quickly, he showed an ability to embrace the Ivy League identity and consistently integrate our unique messages into his daily work. In a time when we are asked to produce content for a variety of disciplines, he has embraced each responsibility without ever downgrading his self-expectation of quality in all his work. His personality is team-oriented and his passion for his work is continuously showcased each day.“
- Matt Panto, The Ivy League Associate Executive Director, Strategic Communications & External

Sam Knehans serves as the primary communications contact for 11 Ivy League sports and assists in the administration of several of the League’s championship events. Prior to his time at the Ivy League, he served in the NAIA as Assistant Commissioner of the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) and in the NAIA’s national office.

At the Ivy League, he has covered two team and four individual national champions, and coordinated the League’s in-depth coverage of 35 Ivies, past and present, who competed in PyeongChang during the 2018 Winter Olympics. They were the second-largest contingent among NCAA conferences. Amongst other national and regional committee work, he serves on two CoSIDA committees, the Convention Programming committee (2016-present) and the New Media committee (2018-present). In his convention programming role, Knehans has coordinated all of the conference convention programming — for all conference attendees in all divisions — the past two years.

No stranger to academic success, Knehans graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, earning his bachelor’s in magazine journalism and political science, with minors in sport management and African American studies. And, that graduation saw him as a summa cum laude honoree, with a perfect 4.0 GPA, as he earned valedictorian honors.
 

You have many responsibilities with your position at the Ivy League and your CoSIDA and Ivy League committee work. Your academic focus continues as you have added more to your plate recently – taking master’s classes.
I’m taking master’s classes, yes! I have an appetite for lifelong learning, and I’m keeping the avenues open for career possibilities. This master’s work is the right opportunity. Our Ivy League office is based on the Princeton campus; we actually have Princeton IDs, and the League has an educational assistance program. Technically I’m a Princeton employee but the Ivy League operates separately with our own budget, separate from the athletic department at Princeton. Now that I’m more settled in my career and have the support here, I landed in the Villanova School of Business and am pursuing my MBA. I’m in my first semester. I am fortunate to leave a little early for classes.

In terms of my academic success, yes, I was Valedictorian at Syracuse. Like I said, I’m a life-long learner and my personal philosophy for education and college athletics aligns with the mission of the Ivy League. It’s a great fit for me here. That was a huge draw for me, as it took a unique opportunity for me to leave the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC).

You had four undergraduate majors and minors?
At Syracuse, I was a magazine journalism and political science double major, with minors in sport management and African American studies. I went to Syracuse after researching the top journalism schools, and found that it also had a significant sports management major as well. I thought I’d have a great journalism background and dabble in sport management, but the reverse is now true. The African-American studies minor came from one of my big areas of interest – the civil rights movement and that time in history. For political science, I combined my love of sports into my thesis topic and wrote on Title IX and it’s impact on college admissions, on getting women to college. I know that’s not a traditional grouping of studies, but it wove all my interests together and I was able to make a custom setup for what I wanted to study in college.

How did it all work into your current career path?
My first connection with college athletic communications was at Syracuse – by happenstance. I played on the men’s club volleyball team, and one thing the team did is to provide game-day assistance at Syracuse’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball matches. I connected with a Syracuse athletic communications intern at women’s volleyball, and met people in the industry. This got me interested in pursuing internship opportunities in athletic communications and I did internships with the MLB Triple A Chiefs in Syracuse, and then at Missouri Baptist under then head-SID Brad Cyan. That’s my connection to the NAIA. I worked under Brad and have maintained great relationship with him throughout my career.

I then did a one-year internship at the NAIA national office. I took that internship because the internship has been a very successful first step for so many SIDs, and I knew I could meet a lot of people and I knew the NAIA’s placement history. I met Mike Hall the SSAC Commissioner when I was the NAIA national tournament men’s soccer media coordinator. He recruited me and I ran the day-to-day operations for the SSAC at ages 23, 24 from a small conference office in Montgomery as Mike worked from home in South Carolina and came to the office for meetings. We had myself, two part-timers and interns. I credit my career success and comfort to being involved in a lot of duties in the first years of my career. That provided me a broader education of our industry. Like I said, it took a special place to me to leave the SSAC, and as I covered 15 sports there, making the transition to the Ivy League was an easy one.
 

Your role in the Ivy League? How to do you handle media relations work for so many sports?
I now oversee 11 sports, down from 14 a few years ago. I’ve taken over football communications, and last year I added women’s lacrosse as a primary sport to cover. I really enjoy the media attention these two sports bring to the Ivy League. Within our office, it’s common to handle double-digit sports. We offer 33 sports, and as many know, most of our schools have over 40 sport offerings.  

How do we manage, balance and prioritize so many sports? It’s our philosophy to treat them as equally as possible – when possible. We establish a baseline for coverage for all 33 sports. Then, we pick and choose – where is the media attention going to be? Where is national success happening? We pride ourselves on the Ivies being competitive in women’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s (ice) hockey – it’s our goal to give them their due attention.

Why is committee work and volunteerism in the Ivy League and CoSIDA important to you?
When I was with the NAIA, I also helped out with social media for the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl, and worked at NCAA FBS bowl games. That bowl games experience was over after moving to Princeton and this job, and that opened up time for me to get involved with CoSIDA and pursue my MBA.  

Having been at national offices and conference offices, I recognize the need for more robust conference programming. That got me interested in the CoSIDA programming committee. I’m happy to do the planning for conference divisional day at the CoSIDA convention. I rely on a lot of colleagues and friends in industry to help me, and we’ve had a lot of divisional conference reps step up and assist. It’s important to get the conference office voices involved.

How do you organize all the moving parts in a conference communications office?
We have contstant collaboration with the schools. One thing we’ve tried to do is provide something unique back to our schools and help take the pressure off of them a bit. We asked ourselves, what do we, the conference office staff, have expertise and time to do? What new things can we bring to the table? We’ve made a concerted effort to generate league-wide stories from different schools, give a league-wide perspective in storytelling, and not duplicate what our schools are doing.

And, when we can, we pick up the slack. For instance, I was with the Yale baseball team at Oregon State NCAA Regionals and I took over their social media, did graphics for them, etc. It not only bought us goodwill and it flipped the tables – we did work for them instead of asking Yale to assist us.

As conference PR contacts, we also focus on our alumni in the athletic realm. Our schools might not have the time to do these things, so we started a series called “Ivies in the NFL.” Seven of our eight universities have NFL players. We did a similar series a while back, showcasing the Ivy League influence in Major League Baseball front offices and showed how  many have an Ivy League tie. These are unique ideas and closely related to athletics.

Can you talk about a favorite project to date?
My favorite projects at Ivy league so far was spearheading the annual Legends of Ivy League Basketball, in conjunction with the Ivy League Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. Also, I was fortunate to lead coverage of the 35 Ivies in PyeongChang during the 2018 Winter Olympics; the Ivy League had the second-largest contingent among NCAA conferences.

Team USA started at effort to connect more with collegiate conferences and I went to a Team USA media summit in Utah to meet with some of our alums and the Team USA communications staff. This immensely helped bolster our Olympic coverage and I did daily recaps of Ivies who competed. The Ivy League was in the forefront, and it’s a big moment for us when we are right up there with the Power 5’s - and we must capitalize on that. We had nine Ivy medalists in PyeongChang. Peole know about our rich history and we want to tell the modern success stories, too. It was our time to showcase that.

Do you find time for outside hobbies and interest and are you able to carve out some down time?
Outside of work, I’ll be first to admit, I suffer from a lack of work-life balance right now. I’m pretty focused on my job, happy to have a career I’m passionate about. Right now, the MBA is a big focus; my second focus and most important focus is my fiancée (Margaret) and going on weekend excursions when time permits.

I’ve been to 38 states and we are trying to get to all 50. We travel when we can. She works in a non-profit and is a lifelong University of Alabama fan and a two-time Alabama graduate. Fortunate that she supports and appreciates me; she’s been to every Ivy League basketball tournament we’ve had. We’ve recently discovered nearby Cape May in NJ and it’s a unique area. We run the gamut — we love the travel and experience something new … and craft breweries are a priority!

What’s on the career horizon for you?
At some point, I’d love the opportunity to lead an athletic communications department. I’m trying to build my skills and career. I’m fortunate to be a part of that strategic and collaborative team here at the Ivy League. I ran a small one-person department at the SSAC, and I’d like to eventually get back in a supervisory role, setting strategies and being the main voice for the department.