College Sports Information Directors of America

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• Past Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award Recipients

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Jeff Rubin – Learfield Executive Vice President of Digital / SIDEARM Sports President and Founder

Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award
Presented to an individual who, or an organization which, has made a lasting contribution to intercollegiate athletics, has demonstrated a long and consistent commitment to excellence and has been a loyal supporter of College Sports Communicators and its mission. Voted on by the Executive Board of Directors only when worthy candidates are nominated.

by Pete Moore – Syracuse University,  Director of Athletic Communications // CSC past president (2001-02)

Jeff Rubin, this year’s College Sports Communicators’ Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award recipient, is not a “whoa Nellie” kind of guy, the way the award’s namesake was – and his catchphrase that he was known for. However, even Rubin might be prompted to proclaim the trophy as “the Granddaddy of them all” when he reviews the list of previous award winners.
 
Rubin will be presented with the honor on June 12 during CSC UNITE 23 in Orlando during the All-Star Night of Honors, presented by ESPN. He also will be a featured presenter at CSC UNITE on Tuesday, June 13 (11 am) speaking on “Emerging Trends In Technology and Leadership.”

He is the 17th recipient of the Jackson honor, joining a group that includes broadcast legends Jackson, Dick Enberg (CBS), and Dick Vitale (ESPN), the late Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit, and long-time United States Olympic Committee member Bob Condron, to name just a few of the illustrious winners.
 

Rubin is Executive Vice President of Digital for Learfield and founder and president of Sidearm Sports, a company he founded in 2001. And, his now 20-plus years relationship with College Sports Communicators had a very modest beginning.

He was teaching at Syracuse University, his alma mater, and had just dipped his toe in the world of website design with a new company called Internet Consulting Services. His few clients were not in the athletic realm.

“We did work with National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and some great projects, but it was you do the project then move on to the next one,” Rubin noted. “There was no long-term relationship.”

Meanwhile, across campus in Syracuse University Athletics, the administration was exploring website options.

“Syracuse Athletics had started with a website company. I had a preliminary meeting with Jake Crouthamel, who was the director of athletics at the time, marketing head Michael Veley, and Sue Edson, the lead in athletic communications,” Rubin recalled.

“Jake asked me to tell him about the college athletics websites I had built. I told him I hadn’t built any yet, but that my company was local and that I could build one.

“I remember walking out of that meeting and thinking there is no way this works.”

Then catastrophe hit. Syracuse’s website provider called and gave notice the company was shutting down – that day. Rubin came to the rescue.

“It was at that time that we built suathletics.com,” Rubin said. “We had to just construct pages manually, because we needed the time to build the content management system. The server lived in my office. It was right next to my desk.”

Yet, it was the start of something … big.

“The Syracuse athletics communications staff encouraged me to attend the CoSIDA convention and ECAC-SIDA workshop,” Rubin said. “I was like a fish out of water, but I was meeting folks. From that, Rochester Institute of Technology called.

“All of a sudden, one school site turned into two, which turned into five, which turned into ten. That’s when I thought we could really be in this niche market and instead of work for hires, have multi-year agreements.”

Jamie Joss, the current director of athletics at Florida Tech, was the sports information director at RIT at the time.

“During first conversation I had with Jeff, at the CoSIDA Convention in Rochester, I commented that there was no way we could afford the service that he was providing Syracuse,” Joss recalled. “Jeff was more interested in helping provide athletic communications professionals with the SIDEARM software to save time and make our jobs more efficient.

“When I asked about the cost, I was shocked at how affordable it was,” Joss said. “Jeff was extremely motivated to ensure that small schools with tight budgets could afford it.”

It did not take long for the company growth chart to go right off the top of the page.

“I’d say four or five years into it, so 2005-2006, was when we went from adding five to 10 sites a year to all of a sudden it was 50 to 100 new clients annually,” Rubin said.

The initial growth spurt was ignited further when Rubin recruited a client, Joss, to be the first sales staff member for what was now SIDEARM Sports.

“Jamie doubled our sales very quickly.”

“When I began at Internet Consulting Services in February 2007, we had 40 schools over seven years,” Joss said. “From May to July we signed over 100 schools!”

One of the strengths of the SIDEARM Sports brand was its flexibility. It easily adjusted to the needs of schools of all sizes. The company had particular success working with Division III, Division II and Division I mid-major athletic programs. The next large leap was just ahead.

“In 2012, we had well over 550 clients but the only Power Five institution we had was Syracuse,” Rubin stated. “We had a lot of Division I schools, but we didn’t have any other Power Fives. Then we got a call from Texas. They met with us and took a chance on us. That was another game changer.

“Then Kansas came in right after and all of a sudden it gave us visibility at the top of the market.”

Today, SIDEARM Sports is a part of Learfield. Almost 98 percent of the business is college athletics.

“The trust college athletics has put in SIDEARM Sports has been unbelievable,” Rubin commented. “It’s not that we don’t make mistakes, but the trust is there that we’re going to do the right thing. To us, this isn’t a business transaction - it’s all about relationships.”

Rubin looks back fondly on the association he has had with his College Sports Communicators colleagues.

“In the beginning, they were helping us so much more than we could ever help them,” he remarked. “Now the annual convention is like a reunion. Myself, and our staff, feel like a welcomed part of this family.”

Rubin, who admitted he was shocked upon hearing from CSC Executive Director Erik Christianson that he was the 2023 Jackson Award recipient, reflected on the honor.

“The Jackson Award means a lot to me because of the organization presenting it,” Rubin concluded.

When the announcement was made in February, Rubin remarked that “This recognition is truly a privilege, and I am grateful to be included in such an incredible group. I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to both the incredible team that surrounds me daily and the entire CSC community for their friendship, support and encouragement over the past 20-plus years. Their unwavering support and selfless dedication to college athletics lays the foundation for the difference we are making together in the industry.”

Jeff and his wife of 18 years, Jennifer, reside just outside of Syracuse in Manlius, N.Y., along with their sons, Nathan (17) and Benjamin (15).