New Pitt AD Addresses NIL Concerns

New Pitt Panthers athletic director Allen Greene addressed NIL concerns.

Pitt Athletic Director Allen Greene / Courtesy of Pitt Athletic

PITTSBURGH -- Allen Greene just started his tenure as the new athletic director for the Pitt Panthers, but focusing on NIL will serve as one of his most important tasks going forward.

NIL, the acronym for Name, Image and Likeness, allows student-athletes to profit off of themselves, including sponsorships, advertisements, brand deals and more. The NCAA, historically, prohibited student-athletes from benefitting from their fame financially, until state laws and rules the NCAA made changed that back in 2021.

This has led to massive changes in how teams recruit not just at the high school level, but also with the addition of the transfer portal. College athletic departments now compete financially to sign the best talent and to build the best programs.

Greene will work with NIL heavily and will lean on a strong fanbase to usher in a new era of Pitt athletics.

“I think it’s the interest of, this is a sport city, there’s no more pride than cities like this and I think the Pitt community will answer the bell," Greene said. "I’ve talked to them about the importance of talent acquisition, particularly through NIL and as this world changes, we’re going to continue to our folks in the community and help them buy into our overall vision.”

Greene came from Tennessee, where he served as Senior Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Operating Officer (COO). He worked with athletic director Danny White, who recently instituted a talent fee, adding 10% onto the price of season tickets and single game tickets.

Those changes came because of the new revenue sharing plan that will start in the fall of 2025. The NCAA and Power Conferences, as a part of a settlement in the House vs. NCAA court case, will now allow schools to spread around up to $22 million of their annual revenue with student-athletes.

Greene doesn't have any specific plans yet, but he wants to stay ahead of what others are doing and give his all to benefit the various programs at Pitt.

“Not specifically. Anytime we’re looking at how we position ourselves, is about talent acquisition," Greene said. "It just so happened to be that that was a talent fee, but we’re all thinking about the same thing across the country. Trying to figure out how we can get people to understand the importance making sure that they’re contributing as much as they can to help us provide them a great time, either on Saturday, in this case it’s going to be Thursday this week, and then making sure in this arena that we’re in right now, that they there’s a good product on the court."

The world of college athletics is much different now than it was when Greene played baseball for Notre Dame from 1996-98.

He has seen the landscape change from his time as deputy athletic director/athletic director at Buffalo (2012-18), to more recent jobs as athletic director at Auburn (2018-22) and also his two stints at Ole Miss (2009-12, 2022-23), especially with the job that an athletic director needs to do to ensure success for their programs.

“I don’t even remember when I was an athlete," Greene said. "It’s a very different day and age. Look, we have to understand that the world changes, the world evolves and in order for us to fulfill our responsibility to our young people, we have to accept that it’s a new world and have to do whatever we can to make sure they’re successful on it.”

Greene wants fans to have an understanding of why NIL is crucial for Pitt going forward. He said that he will work to communicate that, specifically, and how that funding will benefit the teams at the university greatly.

“I think just communicating to the community how important it is," Greene said. "I think we’ve heard some of our coaches talk about how important NIL is and it’s not them just being selfish. It’s the reality of world that we’re in today is that without having the resources to acquire talent, then you’re basically putting your coaches in a d-position. So we want to make sure, and I want to tell the community, directly from me is that NIL is going to be one of the top priorities we have to make sure that our coaches have the resources they have to compete at the national level."

While the introduction of NIL and revenue-sharing bring former amateur competition closer to professional sports, Greene emphasized the importance of the student-athlete and that the University of Pittsburgh will maintain a level of academic excellence.

“I think that speaks to who we are as a university and what the job that our coaches do in selling the University of Pittsburgh," Greene said. "This is not professional sports, so I think we have to separate the fact that student-athletes getting paid vs. professional sports, this is not. This is an institution of higher learning. This is the only place in the world where academics is tethered to the academy and so long as that is the case, we are going to make sure that academics is an emphasis and recruit the type of kids who understand and whose families understand that academics plays a role in their personal development.”

Greene's previous experience with bringing money into athletic departments is one that sets him up well to transition Pitt through the various changes in college athletics. He approaches it less as a salesman giving a pitch, but rather, allowing people to see what they can achieve with their continued support.

“I’m going to answer that question the way I would answer it to someone who’s not worked in fundraising before," Greene said. "Someone who’s just starting off in this industry and say, “I don’t ask for money.” Never have. I explain a vision, express a vision and let people enjoy the journey along with that vision."

While Greene doesn't know exactly what college sports will become in the upcoming years, the battle starts with just doing the work everyday. He believes that with the work he and his staff will put in will give Pitt athletics the best chance to succeed in the future.

“I don’t know what it looks like tomorrow. I’m just trying to get through today. It’s going to be different. That’s all we know. There’s so many things happening in our ecosystem and it’s too difficult to predict what’s going to happen. So we have to take the information that we know and that we have and try to make prudent decisions and have a great strategy around those things going forward and be prepared to adjust and adapt when necessary.”

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