Charlotte Athletic Director Mike Hill joined me on the Higher Ed Athletics podcast. We started the conversation profiling UNC-Charlotte and his thought process behind leaving Florida for the Charlotte AD job. The rest of the conversation dives into the importance of branding and relationships with administrators at the other universities in the system.

Below is a list of the questions:

• Q: Can you tell us about UNC-Charlotte as an institution? Because I don’t think many people understand how big the university is.
• Q: After 25 years at the University of Florida you became the AD at UNC-Charlotte. At what point did you know that you wanted to pursue an AD opening because I’m always fascinated in career crossroad stories.
• Q: You entered the job as your predecessor was retiring after three decades leading the department. How does a new AD in that situation best approach the staff and eventually implement the vision you have for the department when change might be difficult for some?
• Q: Coming from Florida to Charlotte there’s a difference in staff resources and probably a smaller alumni donor base due to it being a younger institution. Do the same strategies in marketing, fundraising and revenue generation apply to a Group of 5 institution, or is there a different blueprint to being successful?
• Q: UNC-Charlotte decided to brand athletics as Charlotte including adding a “CLT” logo mark. What was the strategy behind the decision?
• Q: Can you walk me through the steps and considerations you all made in the rebranding process and what you learned as the new AD?
• Q: Could you ever see a day in college athletics where a branch campus athletic department gets a better apparel contract or additional buying power in equipment purchases through being associated with the flagship campus athletic department?
• Q: What are some other ways maybe a flagship and its branch athletic departments could share resources to help it thrive? Or maybe they shouldn’t crossover?