Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Spotlight: Michael Kelly
8/7/2017 12:00:00 AM | Football
The Deacon Spotlight is a new, biweekly feature which will catch up with Deacon alumni who've moved into their professional careers.
Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@DemonDeacons)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- As a student at Wake Forest, Michael Kelly ('92) was a non-athlete studying politics. Less than two decades later, he's the right-hand man for arguably the most powerful organization in college athletics.
His winding career path took him from Winston-Salem to the Florida Marlins, to running a Final Four and three Super Bowls, to serving as a Senior Associate Commissioner at the ACC, and even a return stop as the Director of Athletic Operations and Facilities back at Mother So Dear from 1995-98.
Now, Kelly serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the College Football Playoff (CFP), which replaced the BCS after the 2013 season. The organization coordinates all aspects of the annual postseason tournament which determines the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision national champion.
Working alongside CFP executive director Bill Hancock, Kelly's biggest responsibilities include National Championship operations, also working with branding and communications and teaming with ESPN on broadcast efforts. Kelly also oversees the site selections, and is currently in the process of choosing sites for the 2020-25 title games.
"While we think a lot about the year coming up - we tend to go there for a number of days each month for the different operations we're planning there - I also have to work ahead a couple of years out," Kelly said. "One week you might be in Atlanta (2017 season host site) for a week, then looking ahead to our game in Santa Clara (2018 host) the next, and New Orleans (2019 host) the next.
"We're starting to prepare, this summer in particular, for where we might take our national championship game in the next six years after that. We've got a site selection process coming up, so that's my special focus beyond the normal course of duty over the next year."
Rewind to his time at Wake Forest, where his education set the tone for his future success.
"Some of the professors that I had were inspirational, were people that gave you the time to grow and think," Kelly added. "In particular, I had Dr. Katy Harriger from the political science department who was very close to me, Dr. Yomi Durotoye was as well. A real treat was of course to have the late Dr. Maya Angelou as a professor of mine. To have experiences with all of them and the many other great teachers gave me a lot of confidence and helped me learn and become a better writer and critical thinker, which has served me well."
After spending three years in the professional world following his 1992 graduation, Kelly seized the opportunity to become a Deacon once again when a job came open in 1995, despite not working in the athletic department as an undergrad.
"To come back later and work professionally with some people who gave me a huge chance early in my career and took a chance on me, that gave me a chance to learn and to demonstrate my abilities, so I owe a great bit to Ron Wellman," Kelly said. "It was early in his administration that he and his staff brought me on. There were great successes there at the time, and it's allowed me to learn from his example to give people throughout my career now a chance to grow."
A high school basketball player in Washington D.C., Kelly always had an interest in sports despite studying politics. His time at Wake Forest allowed him to connect the two worlds, which he continues to utilize in his position today.
"The athletic administration industry wasn't as specialized or well known in the early '90s as it is now. I was really thinking more on going to law school and finding a way to link the two," Kelly explained. "Closer to the closure of my time at Wake, I realized more and more specificity in the sports industry and ended up electing to pursue a master's degree in sports administration, and ultimately found the merger of that sports business background and politics to be a good crossroads of types of things I deal with today."
Kelly left Wake Forest in 1998 to become the Executive Director of the Tampa Bay Final Four Organizing Committee, where he ran the 1999 Final Four. He then became the President of the Host Committee for Super Bowls XXXV, XXXIX and XLI before joining the ACC for six years from 2007-13, when the CFP came calling.
"At this stage of my career, that's what I feel most blessed about - that I've had the chance to work in so many different venues," Kelly said. "Mega-events like the Super Bowl and Final Four, the energy and the constant activity on a campus that I've had both at Wake Forest and South Florida, and even a nice six years down the road there at the ACC office, a conference setting and working with between 12 and different 14 schools and different fan bases. I've loved it all, and maybe it's been the diversity of the jobs that's helped keep it most stimulating."
But still, Wake Forest holds a special place in his heart. That's where he met his wife, Lisa Faircloth Kelly ('92), and gained not only an education but also spring-boarded his career.
"I certainly know that, without question, I wouldn't be in the position I am today if I hadn't gone to Wake Forest. I've been fortunate enough to be there both as a student and from a professional standpoint - not many people get a chance to do that, and that's a special honor."
