Christian Spears, the Deputy Director of Athletics at Eastern Michigan, is on the Montana State campus on Wednesday as the third of five finalists MSU will bring to Bozeman for its athletic director opening.
Wyoming Deputy AD Matt Whisenant interviewed on Monday and Utah Deputy AD Kyle Brennan was on campus on Tuesday. Peter Fields has served as Montana State’s AD since 2002. Earlier this year, MSU President Waded Cruzado announced Fields’ contract would not be renewed upon its expiration on June 30.
Spears emerged from a pool of more than 60 applicants. A search committee including: Terry Leist, MSU Vice President of Administration and Finance; Camie Bechtoldt, MSU Senior Associate Athletic Director; Brett Forder, President, Bobcat Club; George Haynes, MSU Faculty Athletic Representative; Ellen Kreighbaum, Former MSU Athletic Director; Chris Kukulski, Bozeman City Manager; Bob Mokwa, Member, MSU University Athletic Committee; Chad Newell, Bobcat Student Athlete; Riley Nordgaard, Bobcat Student Athlete; Cory Pulfrey, Chairman, MSU Alumni Foundation Board; and Melanie Stocks, Director, MSU Sports Facilities teamed with the Parker Executive Search firm to research each candidate and add to the pool any person the consulting firm felt was a good fit. The committee and Parker Executive whittled the group to eight semifinalists before announcing five finalists would come to Bozeman this week.
Spears is in his second year in Ypsilanti at EMU. As part of the Eastern Michigan athletic department’s Executive Leadership Team, Spears oversees external operations including development, marketing, corporate partnership efforts, fan experience and media relations. He is also the leader for groups creating strategies to increase ticket sales, merchandise and other revenue streams. Spears assists with the administration of the football program and is responsible for football scheduling.
Spears earned a political science degree from the University of Washington before earning a master’s degree in public administration from Long Beach State in 1998. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Ohio State Moritz College of Law in 2002. As a graduate student in Long Beach, he began his career in athletics, working in the marketing office. During his time at Ohio State, he served as the Big Ten Minority Intern for Ohio State University working in their athletic compliance office.
Spears spent two years at Harvard after leaving Columbus. In 2003, he began a six-year stint as the assistant athletic director at Southern Illinois. In 2008, he was hired as the Deputy Athletic Director and the sports administrator for the football team at Northern Illinois.
While at NIU, Spears served as the acting director of athletics for nearly five months while NIU conducted a national search for their new Director of Athletics following the football team’s Orange Bowl appearance in 2013.
At NIU, Spears directly supervised the following administrative areas for NIU: Academics, Compliance, Life Skills, Strength and Conditioning, Sport Psychology, Football Operations and Equipment. Moreover, he coordinated the department’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) and Graduation Success Rate (GSR). He was also the sport AD for football, men’s basketball, baseball, cross country and track and field.
In addition to his duties at Northern Illinois, Spears served as president of the National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC) in 2012-13 and on the NAAC Board of Directors from 2008-14.
Christian and his wife, Julia, have three children, Rainier, Kai and Skyla.
