Kit Hughes - Deputy Director of Athletics - Staff Directory - Bowling Green State University Athletics

Staff Directory

Kit Hughes

Title:
Deputy Director of Athletics
Email:
Phone:
419-372-7675

Kit Hughes was named Senior Associate Athletics Director at BGSU in April of 2014 and elevated to Deputy Director of Athletics in July of 2020. He came to BGSU after enjoying seven years at North Carolina State University, his final serving as the Assistant Director of Athletics for Corporate Relations.

At Bowling Green, Hughes assists the Director of Athletics & Recreation with the day-to-day operations of the athletics department and is responsible for the administration of the football and men’s basketball programs. He serves as a member of the Athletic Budget Committee and executive staff, is involved in all personnel and HR matters, leads the department’s external relations team, and is the primary contact for football scheduling. Hughes also serves as an appointee to several University, Mid-American Conference (MAC), Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), and City of Bowling Green community organizations, as well as various BGSU hiring and purchasing committees. Kit was a selected for the President’s 2018 Executive Leadership Program, the MAC’s college football 150th Anniversary Committee, the Joint Advisory Board to WBGU-TV, and serves as the chairman of the Bowling Green State University Athletics Hall of Fame. Additionally, Kit leads production of the department’s bi-annual development magazine, ‘Roll Along!’, and provides direct oversight for the offices of strategic communications, athletic ticketing, marketing and brand enhancement, licensing, and the department’s multimedia rights holder, Falcon Sports Properties.

Hughes' external staff has worked to deliver revenue increases and customer service enhancements within several areas during his time at Bowling Green. The athletic ticket office has generated increases in both season ticket sales, overall regular season ticket revenue, and been recognized nationally for both student and public ticket initiatives and best practices. Improved customer service initiatives for fans including the transition to the Paciolan ticketing platform, the implementation of the ticketing point system, easier ticket transfers and secondary market access via StubHub, young alumni programming, and enhanced communication for fans and donors are among the positive changes impacting the customer experience. Financial advances have also been seen in areas of licensing royalties and overall multimedia rights property value through extended and improved contracts for both areas. In collaboration with partner Learfield, Hughes helped to complete the installation of a new video board in the Slater Family Ice Arena and a renovation of the primary sports medicine center serving all 425 Falcon student-athletes. Additionally, Hughes assisted with the contract negotiations and successful transitions to the department's all-sport apparel provider, Nike, athletic licensing partner, Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), and has oversight of BG Athletics' partnership with ESPN and the MAC for self-produced events broadcast on ESPN3/+. Starting in 2021, Falcon Athletics will again partner with WBGU for enhanced streaming coverage of all Falcon hockey games through the new CCHA and extended partnership with FloSports. Hughes' team has also partnered with University leadership to create curriculum and programming within the School of Media and Communication, as well as the College of Education & Human Development's Sports Management program, to ‘engage undergraduate students with a unique BG learning experience’ in support of Goal 1 of BGSU's strategic plan.

In spring of 2014, Hughes concluded his tenure at NC State as the Assistant Athletic Director for Corporate Relations. In this position he identified and cultivated relationships with local and regional businesses, aided in the strategic development of individual sport fundraising accounts, assisted with premium seating sales for football and men's basketball, and worked with student-athlete development to identify and secure post-graduate job opportunities for Wolfpack student-athletes.

Hughes is a college football veteran having spent eight years on the staffs at both Boston College and NC State, his final two as Assistant Athletic Director for Football. In this role, Hughes served as coordinator for all football operations for the Wolfpack and represented the program with every area of the athletic department and main campus. Among his duties were managing donor and player-parent engagement, leading summer camp and clinic operations, serving as the program’s NFL liaison, as well as a myriad of other duties related to the development of the program and its student-athletes. Hughes began at NC State in January 2007 as the Assistant Director of Football Operations and the Director of Summer Camps, quickly rising through the ranks of Wolfpack Athletics. Prior to his tenure in Raleigh, Hughes served on Coach Tom O'Brien's football staff at Boston College in 2005 and 2006.

Hughes earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology in 2001 from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and received his master’s degree in higher education from Boston College in 2006. He was a four-year letterman in lacrosse at Bowdoin and led his team to the ECAC Championship in 2001. At Boston College, he served as a graduate assistant in the football program as well as an intern in the athletic compliance office. He has coaching experience in both hockey and lacrosse.

Hughes is an active member of NACDA and has experience at the Mentoring Institute, College Athletics Leadership Symposium (CALS), and the Division 1A Athletic Directors' Association AD Institute (now LEAD1). He is married to the former Kathrine Ranere and the couple has four children - daughter Finley, and sons Coady, Cullen, and Griffin.