Brittney Whiteside: Leadership Through Change, NIL, and the Transfer Portal

Brittney C. Whiteside is the Vice President of Collegiate Partnerships at Altius Partners. Prior to this role, Whiteside served as the executive associate athletics director at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. There, she was a member of the department's executive leadership team, overseeing the external operations of corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, branding, marketing, licensing, broadcast and strategic revenue generation. In addition, she served as the senior woman administrator with oversight of diversity, equity, inclusion and Title IX planning.

Prior to joining UVA, she served as senior associate athletics director at Appalachian State University and director of external engagement at the University of Missouri.

With over 10 years of experience in higher education, Whiteside has a diverse background in operational and strategic planning, fundraising, academic affairs, human resources, corporate partnerships and community relations.?

A native of Columbus, Whiteside received her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2007 and master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling in 2012 from Wright State. She was a four-year letter winner on the women’s basketball team and played professionally in Germany before returning to the Dayton area to begin her career in athletics administration at Wright State.

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There’s no doubt the current college sports landscape has changed drastically over the last three or four years. It’s been a time unlike any other. The landscape is shifting. You have NIL and now you have the House settlement and revenue sharing that will, once again, change the way we operate. For athletes and administrators who want to have an opportunity to lead through change, I think it’s a great time.?

Where we are today has been a long time coming, although I have been surprised by the speed of change. We have a new NCAA president, and it really seems like over the last year there has been significant headway into what this new model of college sports could look like and that’s been a pleasant surprise. I will say, though, that there is definitely still more clarity and guidance needed.

The main challenges for leaders around the country are going to be primarily financial. In this new model where athletes can be paid directly by institutions, there’s a need to generate more revenue to find ways to pay athletes. So financial implications will definitely be felt on campuses and on various levels. I think, that with change comes opportunities and that, ultimately, there will be more opportunities for our athletes.?

I think the portal - its intent - is positive. The idea of giving athletes more decision-making power and autonomy is good. We will have to figure out some of the unintended consequences, like tampering, and create greater enforcement mechanisms to deal with it.?

Despite the seemingly revolving door nature of the portal, I do think coaches find ways to constantly adapt to the competitive environment. I’ve seen rosters that have had over 20 new players come in and programs have adapted. I would love to hear more of a coach’s perspective on this, but from my perspective, it probably only impacts culture or cohesion, not level of play.?

The dynamic changes we are experiencing now will likely stay with us for the next couple of years. Once you have the House settlement and revenue sharing in the rearview mirror, there may be more changes in the way collectives operate, which would significantly impact the landscape moving forward. There’s no doubt we are still in a period of evolution. We have more questions than answers, and it will really just take time for us to begin to build out what the final landscape looks like with those enforcement mechanisms.