Kyle Brennan manages the areas of compliance, facilities, equipment, events, finance, human resources and academic support, as well as overseeing the sport supervisors at Utah. Before becoming the COO in August of 2018, he also oversaw the external side of Utah athletics, including its partnership with Under Armour and Learfield. Brennan was responsible for securing a $15.6 million gift to start a varsity men’s lacrosse program, representing the largest donation in department history. He also negotiated new multi-media rights and department-wide apparel contracts that exceeded the prior agreements by $20 million. As the chief administrator over new facility projects, Brennan chaired the department’s five-year strategic planning committee and played a key supervisory role in the fundraising and construction of the Spence and Cleone Eccles Football Center (opened in August of 2013), as well as the Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Basketball Facility (2015) and the outdoor tennis courts.
Sports Industry Journey:
Education
Bachelor's Degree | Political Science | Calvin College
Juris Doctor | University of Denver
Career
Athletics Compliance GA | Northern Illinois
Director of Compliance | TCU
Director of Compliance | Ball State
Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance | University of Utah
Associate Athletics Director for Compliance | University of Utah
Special Assistant to the Athletics Director | University of Utah
Senior Associate Athletics Director of Administration | University of Utah
Chief Operating Officer/Deputy Athletics Director - Internal Operations | University of Utah
LinkedIn: Kyle Brennan
How did you go from practicing law to working in collegiate athletics?
During undergrad I was searching for a degree and I couldn’t find one that fit me. I went in with the wrong mentality. I went in with the mentality of “How is this going to get me a job after I graduate?” My girlfriend at the time and who is now my wife, told me to just major in something I liked. So I decided to major in Political Science and I started to get passionate about Higher Education.
When I was getting close to graduating I had no idea what I was going to do, so I went to my professors for some advice. With a Poli Sci degree, they said either I can be a professor or go to law school. I didn’t want to be a lawyer but I figured law school could give me more options and broaden my mind. Once you finish law school though, you’re really only qualified to do law, but I decided to pursue it. Early on in my law career I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
I was trying to figure out what else I could do since I knew I didn’t want to continue with law. I thought about going the PHD route for Poly Sci. But one day I was talking to my cousin who worked at the Alamo Bowl, and he was telling me a lot of lawyers were getting into compliance.
I decided that’s what I was going to do. Going from being a lawyer to compliance, I thought it would be easy to get a job. But I couldn’t get a call back. So I figured I need to get some experience so I can be taken seriously as a candidate. I called around and finally was given a GA opportunity at Northern Illinois.
ES: Were you ever worried about the decision you made? To leave a well-paying law job to then go and make significantly less in athletics?
KB: At the time I was young and confident. I had a 1 year-old child and a wife. But at night I would work another job. I would work the graveyard shift in facility and event management, helping set up for other events going on and what not.
You’ve accomplished a lot on the external side of things (secured the biggest gift in program history, negotiated multimedia rights deals and apparel contracts and oversaw the partnership with Under Armour and Learfield. Coming from an internal background, how did you get to that point in your career to handle those crucial external pieces? How did you gain the trust of the athletics director and show you were capable of succeeding?
I got lucky. I have friends who work in compliance and are incredible people and they would be great on the other side (external). But it’s hard to get to the other side from internal to external. But I was lucky that I had an athletics director that didn’t look at titles. He just saw me as a good person who worked hard and he trusted me.
At the end of the day it’s about building relationships, building trust and having the ability to work well with one another. [When it comes to fundraising] it’s about building genuine relationships and people will want to give to you and the university you represent.
As to how to get to that point in your career, it's a hard road and takes some luck. A lot of internal people throw their hands up and say “How am I going to get there?” Well truthfully sometimes you need to pave your own way.
I was lucky that I had a great boss that wanted to help me.
ES: How did you gain that trust with the athletics director?
KB: How it happened to me was, I told the AD here are 10 problems I see in this department and here are the solutions that I think can fix them. To spot a problem, define it, find a solution, and do it in a respectable way goes a long way.
Luckily I had a good relationship with the AD prior to this, so if you don’t have a good relationship with your AD, I wouldn’t advise walking into this office and doing this. But if you’re an entry-level employee, you may want to go to the person who oversees internal or external. A lot of times they’ll let you take your idea and run because their plates are already full.
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?
A lot of the books I read reinforce what I already know. I listen to a lot of music; Johnny Cash, spa music to chill out, 80’s pop. Right now I'm big on 90's east coast hip hop.
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?
I don’t know if I have one that has impacted me in the last six months, but one of my favorite things to give as a gift is a hamburger patty maker. It’s a great cheap gift. Someone gave me this patty maker as a gift and it always stuck out in my mind and I use it all the time. And I’ve had this patty maker for 20 years of my life.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?
I’ve had tons of failure. You learn best from failure. If you’re safe all the time, you’ll never make it anywhere. My favorite one in this business was when we were going to revise how we were going to do CAMP's. We did an audit and they came back and said they were are all over the map and it was sloppy. We did checks and balances, came up with some great ideas and we were ready to go. We go live with it and I immediately start getting calls. One call in particular, was a call I got from one of our coaches and they weren’t happy. It reminded me though, if you’re going to implement something that affects multiple people or departments, ask people who are impacted by it “What do you think?”
When you’re in administration or dealing with something that isn’t in your area of expertise, you don’t know how it will impact other areas. Every time I’ve not asked that question of “What do you think?” to people impacted by my decisions, it’s came back to bite me.
It’s eye opening because you’re not living in their world, but [if you ask them what they think] it gets buy in because they respect that you went to them. It’s a double impact because one you can get it right, but then you begin to build a relationship with that person.
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?
It’d be one of two things. “Treat people the way you want to be treated” or “Be Humble”. I’m not perfect and we all have some ego but that’s how I manage and how I work with people and how I’ve brought success to my career. I’m only here because people have treated me well and I didn’t necessarily deserve it.
Someone gave me advice when I first started “Be nice to people on the way up because you will need people to be nice to you on the way down”.
What are your morning rituals? What do the first 60 minutes of your day look like?
I have kids, so whether it's the first 60 minutes of the day or the last 60 minutes of the day, you’re lucky if you get 60 minutes in general. But usually the first 60 minutes is get ready as fast as I can so I can talk to my kids before they head to school and I encourage them about their day, and then talk to my wife for 5 minutes over coffee and then I’m out the door.
I do take time for myself in the morning to center myself and prepare. I take time to work out because it gives me an opportunity to get physical. It gives me a chance to clear my head and think about things coming up that are important. I try to get in at least 60 minutes a day.
Work life as a senior administrator.
When you’re coming up you have certain tasks, but then you get to a certain point in your career and you don’t have everyday tasks. It’s a lot of problem solving and dealing with the issue at hand. If you need a lot of structure and work goals, it’s not the right job.
Take responsibility over money and title every time.
I see a lot of people make this error. They focus on title and title is the least important thing there is. The best thing you can do is get tasks. Get a variety of responsibilities, as much as you can. If you’re in an academic office, be someone who has a chance at advising and being a learning specialist and teaching life skills instead of getting a title change and five grand more.
I think being diverse in work experience is so much more important. The money part will come. I get it though, times are tough, you may have student debt, and there are things that you have to get taken care of, but always take responsibility over money and title, every time.
What is a skill/quality young people in the sports industry should develop/have to be successful?
Be ambitious as hell, just do it with some tact.
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.)
Nothing is more annoying than the people that try to know everybody. Quality over quantity. It’s really hard to stay in touch.
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