NCAA's Dan Gavitt: The Legacy Continues - Kevin Stacom

NCAA's Dan Gavitt: The Legacy Continues - Kevin Stacom

It’s a well-known and often used theatrical device to begin a story in the present only to quickly jettison the audience back in time to give context and a better understanding of the main character involved. 
                 

In putting together this article on Danny Gavitt and considering his background and the scope of his experience before his current job as Senior Vice President of Basketball for the NCAA, I  couldn’t help but recall in my mind’s eye conversations I had with his Dad, Dave Gavitt, the year I had to sit out a year after transferring into Providence College to play basketball.

 

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Coach Gavitt was very gracious in going out of his way to make me feel included and connected. Even though I was allowed to practice with the team, I couldn’t play in any games that year, which can be very disorienting to any young player. It was great to be around someone you instinctively knew from whom you could learn so much.                

 

It was in one of these conversations when he was taking me out to lunch one afternoon that I remember Coach saying, “Why do all those players you know of from NY all leave the City and the northeast to go out west to places like UCLA or go down south to North or South Carolina, or the Midwest, etc., it’s because all those places are able to offer the excitement and facilities associated with Conference play” It wasn’t till a few years later in 1979 that I realized Dave was already formulating in his mind how to conjure up the concept and execute a plan to formulate and establish a basketball conference of his own to compete for the best talent in the eastern corridor by offering them a great reason to stay - The Big East.

           

This is the heady atmosphere where Danny and his brother Corey ( who later became a successful entrepreneur in his own rite/extreme sports) cut their teeth watching all this come together and being created seemingly out of nothing, whereby their father was able to cobble together all these disparate and mostly provincial institutions to share in his vision of a common interest, and tying up one of the most valuable TV markets in the country in the process. 

               

Danny recalls to this day the invaluable experience of meeting all these people in his father’s circle as a very young guy: Mike Tranghese, John Thompson, Jim Boeheim, PJ Carlesimo, Lou Carnesecca, Billy Raftery, etc. While probably not as gregarious and charismatic as his father(who is?), you could tell from a young age that Danny had his own distinct, very likable personality—very observant, quietly confident, and very bright. 

           

Dan grew up in the Rumford section of East Providence where he attended Providence Country Day school. Basketball was his favorite sport and he loved to play even though at times it was a bit difficult sensing people expected more from him given the fact that he was Dave Gavitt’s son. From there, Danny attended Dartmouth College like his father, where he graduated with a degree in History. 

               

After Dartmouth, Danny returned to Providence, where he started his career in the basketball business as a graduate assistant at PC under head coach Rick Barnes. He was there for about six years ( 1988- 1994), and within that span, when he finished as a part-time assistant, he was also able to earn a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. He credits Rick Barnes as being a great role model in reinforcing the idea that although who you know can open doors for you, basketball can be a very unforgiving business if you can’t do the work, and at some point, you have to survive on your own merit.

 
From there, Danny, his brother Corey, and a friend, Jeremy Duffy, formed a Sports Marketing Company, Craigville Sports Associates, which they ran for about five years. In 1999, former Congressman Ron Machtley, who became President of Bryant College, offered Dan the AD job, which he accepted. That is where Dan began to acquire the skill set that is instrumental in what he is doing today. Machtley’s leadership and contributions in making that University what it is today have been well documented, and Danny was there to see how that was accomplished. 
                   

In 2005, Mike Tranghese was in the process of expanding the Big East to include Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette, DePaul, and South Florida and was looking for help to manage the basketball side. Mike hired Danny as Big East Assistant Commissioner of Basketball, a role he held from 2005- 2012. So by this time, at a relatively young age he saw how a young, ambitious coach like Rick Barnes put together a successful basketball program, recruiting top-level future NBA talent, had seen the intersection of sports and the business world with the experience of his own sports marketing company, had gone through having the responsibility of being an Athletic Director at the University level, and now was acquiring the skill set of running programs at the major conference level of the Big East.  
           

At every stop along the way, Danny is learning different skills, acquiring experiences, and establishing relationships that will turn out to be invaluable for success at his current position. He explained to me that he’s been very fortunate in the fact that at every turn, he was never really actively looking for the next job or opportunity but that just by keeping his head down, working hard, at some point, the next situation came knocking and presented itself. 
               

That next knock came with the NCAA offering Danny Senior Vice President of men’s Basketball Championships and, within a short amount of time, promoted to Senior VP of Basketball, which includes Women’s Basketball and both Tournament structures and operations. It’s a good thing his prior experiences were so wide as you try to digest all the aspects of the NCAA college sports he’s responsible for under his purview:
     

Men’s Division 1, 2, 3, and NIT Championships     

Women’s Division 1, 2, 3, and WBIT
       

Danny also presides over and is responsible for all Media and Broadcasting deals with CBS and TNT Sports. The NCAA also has deals with the Women’s Championship and about 40 other NCAA Championships, not basketball, that are mostly done by ESPN, not to mention the Golf Channel for the NCAA golf Championships. 
           

I would periodically run into Danny on the road as he explained to me in greater detail that he was out getting a feel for all the teams, but also observing referees, visiting different facilities and venues to make determinations on future worthy sites for Tournaments, touching base with Presidents of Universities, Athletic Directors, coaches, hearing what their concerns and ideas are about a variety of issues. You can only imagine what those conversations have been like lately. His additional responsibilities include presiding over the selection committee for the NCAA  Basketball Tournament and although he does not have a vote himself for who gets in, it’s his role to be a sounding board and to make sure that committee members adhere to whatever metrics that have been agreed upon, as best they can 
                 

In the previous couple of articles, we touched upon all the momentous seismic changes that college sports and basketball are struggling with at this time. About a week ago, Charlie Baker released a statement that the presiding judge in a pivotal pending lawsuit-NCAA vs. House, and a tentative legal settlement seeking to resolve that suit was sent back to the drawing board as she posed some questions that in her mind might make that resolution untenable. 
               

In this crazy atmosphere of frenetic conference realignment, the obliteration of all traditional guardrails and regulations, NIL money asserting itself, etc, it's undoubtedly an interesting time for Danny Gavitt to be in charge of basically all things basketball for the NCAA. It’s not in Danny’s nature to draw attention to himself or have any need to be the center of attention. People tend to respect that. He has the temperament, experience, and knowledge at his disposal that he has observed and absorbed from the time he was a young boy. 
               

Those qualities inherent in any consensus builder should serve him and the NCAA well as they seek to navigate through these unprecedented difficulties. 
               

I know his father would be proud of what he’s accomplished and how he does it in his own way.