Graham Neff has made a significant impact on the direction of the athletic department. Neff works closely with Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich on both short-and-long terms planning and execution. He has overseen more than $200 million in capital projects, assisted in the negotiation of several high-value contracts and helped shape Clemson’s athletic department physically, operationally and financially. He has also helped develop several key areas of the department, including the financial philosophy, fundraising, student-athlete welfare, and external operations management, and in 2019 was named one of Sports Business Daily’s Power Players.
As Deputy AD, Neff serves as the sport supervisor for Clemson’s national champion football program and the men’s basketball program.
Student-athlete well-being has been a major focus of his leadership strategy, doubling the department and tripling resource allocation to the staff and programming for life off the field. He’s also had a part in negotiating several of the department’s largest contracts, including on-field apparel (Nike), multimedia rights (JMI Sports), licensing (CLC) and concessions (Aramark).
Sports Industry Journey:
Education
Bachelor's Degree | Civil Engineering | Georgia Tech
MBA | Finance | Georgia Tech
Career
Student Manager | Men's Basketball | Georgia Tech
Financial Advisory - Valuation Services Associate | Deloitte
Financial Controller - Athletics Business & Ticket Operations | Georgia Tech
Associate Athletics Director | Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)
Associate Athletics Director | Clemson University
Deputy Athletics Director | Clemson University
Twitter: @GrahamNeff
LinkedIn: Graham Neff
What has your mindset been throughout your professional career? How have you handled being in senior-level roles at such a young age?
I think that I was willing to put in hard work as my time as a manager, and was willing to do the dirty work. I think that the notion of getting into the weeds is important no matter what level you’re at.
I think I’m certainly aware of my age, but I let my thoughts and work speak for itself. Crush the non-negotiables from a work standpoint and you’ll earn some stripes from those you’re doing it with.
What is the book (or books you’ve given most as a gift) and why or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?
I’m a big time reader. I’ll tell you one that I give to people and has helped me develop a really good mindset. It’s called How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge by Clay Scroggins. It has good elements in it and I love the notion of it.
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?
I bought a $60 Coleman camping tent so my 4 year-old son and I have done some backyard camping [during quarantine] that’s been awesome.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?
In 2010 I finished my MBA at Georgia Tech and was working full-time [at Georgia Tech] for 2 or 3 years at that point. I was ready to take that next step [in my career] so I applied for a job at University of Oregon. I tried to get recommendations and really pursue the job. I didn’t get it. I didn’t even get an interview. It kind of hit me because that was the first time I got a real “no”. But everything happens for a reason and I ended up at MTSU. I still have the form HR letter that was sent.
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere in the world with anything on it – and you could get a message out to millions or billions – what would it say and why?
Proverbs 21:31 which says "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs with the lord."
For me, it means God is in control, but you also need to work, and work hard with the resources God gives you.
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc.)
I think during my time at Deloitte, once I was convinced to pursue opportunities in collegiate athletics, I spent a lot of time building my network and understanding more about the paths for athletics careers. This was 2008, and I had an old-school binder, and still have it and share with students or younger colleagues as they’re asking for advice on careers opportunities. I researched and sent letters to all the athletic directors, HR directors, all the big time people, and gave them my story. Took a bunch of time to do that, but more importantly it really helped broaden my mindset, how to go about it, and what the structures were in athletic departments.
Is there an idea, belief, or trend in the sports industry that you feel strongly about, that others may not agree with and think you're crazy for thinking/saying it?
I’m a big believer in observing and having a good pulse on what professional sports are doing. The crazy aspect is we work on college campuses that are way different than pro sports. I think that [pro sports] often are more nimble, they have more funding and therefore can be more aggressive and therefore can make more mistakes. And the good ideas that stick, those are often very applicable to college environments.
What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student who is looking to start a career in sports? What advice should they ignore?
Advice that should be ignored is that titles and dollars are important. They’re just not. I’m a big believer in that, specifically the dollar portion of everything. I left Deloitte and was making $60,000+ to then making $7.25 an hour at Georgia Tech. It wasn’t until my job at Clemson that I was able to eclipse my salary from my time at Deloitte – and that was six years later. If you do a good job, it will pay off. Follow responsibilities and people.
What are some tips you have for building and maintaining relationships in the sports industry? (It could be with a mentor, co-worker, donor, etc.)
We can learn so much from our peers and colleagues. We couldn’t be further apart [geographically], but don’t be afraid to cold call or hit a colleague or someone you loosely know. Have that aggression of just calling on folks.
Was there a specific point in your career where you started handling tasks/projects that were outside of your comfort zone? If so, what was that specific point and how did you handle feeling overwhelmed?
I got a great story on that. It was when I was 25 years-old and it was my second day at Middle Tennessee. I took a big step in my career from Georgia Tech to my role at MTSU. I was fired up for the job. I generally understood what my role was going into it. But one of my first days on the job, I go into our gameday operations meeting and we’re talking about an upcoming basketball game we're going to have. We've got folks from across campus, concessions, etc. at this meeting.
It quickly became very apparent that I was going to be running these meetings moving forward, which at first wasn’t clear to me. After that meeting I was chatting with folks and I left that meeting realizing they were going to be looking to me for answers and guidance for certain things.
My strategy was to let me tackle things that I can wrap my arms around and understand, and trust them to handle their responsibilities.
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to your 20-something year old self?
Just be patient. I’ve been pretty progressive in my career opportunities. I’m 36 and I hope to be working for another 20-30 years. I look back 10 years ago and that seems like forever. There is so much time to develop relationships, to get into chairs that add levels of decision of authority and therefore stress. While I hope to be an AD soon, I am appreciative of my current role that I'm in.
Comments