Butler AD Q&A: 'The university is committed to do what we need to do to stay competitive.'

Butler Insider Akeem Glaspie sat down with new Butler Vice President and Director of Athletics Grant Leiendecker recently. Here's the transcript from the interview.

AG: You're taking over as athletic director at Butler. As a former player and a Butler alumni. What does Butler mean to you?

GL: That's a great question. It's hard to put into words, frankly. I mean, as we sit here I'm talking to you the day before I take over as Athletics Director of my alma mater in a place where I'd spent a lot of time building relationships, pouring out blood, sweat and tears as we're growing and competing and trying to be the best team we can be.

Just so many memories, so many formative times in my life that ultimately put me on this trajectory to want to pursue a career in this industry now. To have the opportunity to do something that I love at a place that I love is surreal. It's humbling, and I'm just incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Butler University means the world to my wife and I, and our kids. And also factor in who I'm replacing, Barry Collier, what he did for Butler University is immeasurable. And so, there's a huge responsibility there and kind of carrying that torch forward and building on his legacy. And so, it's just incredibly meaningful. And I'm really excited about the opportunity.

More: New AD Grant Leiendecker on how NIL may test Butler Way, a need to 'close the gap.'

AG: What's your favorite memory Butler memory? And what's your favorite Barry Collier memory?

GL: Wow. I'll probably give you two. One of them I have to say because my wife and I got married in Holcomb Gardens here on campus. We met here. And so the combination of meeting my wife here and then ultimately marrying my wife here on campus are certainly up there. .

I can also think back to our times when I was competing here as a student-athlete, running out the tunnel in Lucas Oil Stadium for the Final Four here in Indianapolis is something that I'll never forget. Just that feeling of overwhelming support playing in the Final Four on that stage. From Butler University which was a Horizon League institution at the time. That was just a surreal, memorable experience.

My memory of Barry, it's hard to pick one. My freshman year at Butler University was his first year as Director of Athletics. And so, I didn't know him really well during my time as a student-athlete other than I just knew he was a really steady, poised discipline leader. And then I had a great experience as a student-athlete you know, obviously he was behind the scenes providing those opportunities for us. Moving forward, I pursued a career in this right so I'm trying to follow in his footsteps. Ultimately, he was always there, willing to be a mentor for me, provide guidance certainly was a connection back to my alma mater. And really, the further I got away from my time as a student athlete, the more I can appreciate the decisions that Barry made that helped Butler University in the impact that it has, that his decisions within athletics impacted the university as a whole. So just gained even more respect for him as a leader, and what he's meant to this place.

AG: You mentioned some of those transitions of the basketball program. You played in the Horizon League and (Butler) has since transitioned to the Big East. How would you say the transition to the Big East has gone?

GL: I think it's gone well. I think on one hand, it's incredibly challenging when you think about the competitiveness within our conference, right? This is in my opinion, the best basketball conference in the country. We're extremely competitive in all the sports that the Big East sponsors, but when you talk about the Big East it's one of the best basketball conferences in the country, competitively. That proves out year in and year out when you look at the past for national champions. The past eight years, four of those national championships have come from the Big East. That's incredible, right? And we're not a football conference, but we certainly are at the very top tier, when we think about basketball in the Division I-level.

What moving to the Big East has done for our university has been tremendous, and it's raised our national profile. It's allowing us to get into to other cities and states across the country and recruit students, that's really the lifeblood of this university. So, at its core, it's allowed us to serve the university's mission at a higher level and the whole university has benefited from that when you think about our academic profile and in the ability for us to invest in this infrastructure on our campus. So, it's had an immeasurable impact on Butler University as a whole.

AG: What are your plans to continue that transition into the Big East? Today's college basketball landscape has its own unique challenges with the roster turnover and the transfer portal. This is a completely different game than I would imagine you came up in. What are your plans moving forward to adapt to the new way of college basketball?

GL: That's a great question. It is ever changing. I think it's fair to say that you're going to see more change in college athletics over the next five years than we probably have in the last 50 years. And so, we've got to be extremely adaptable. We've got to find a way to generate more resources, which we have. With my fundraising background, we're able to apply a lot of things that I've learned and developed at other institutions and in bringing some of the science of that here. We've got to grow our staff and allow us to tell our story better and bring more people into the fold to want to be a part of where we're trying to go. But we've got to grow right.

We're a small institution. Generally, we're comparable to a lot of our Big East peers, but there's an opportunity for us to grow our resources, grow our people. And right now, certainly NIL is a major component of a program's success and so we're fighting really hard to grow the awareness of the importance of that, and to give our student athletes more NIL opportunities. We're ultimately going to help our coaches retain and recruit the most talented, best, well-rounded student athletes that are going to help us compete at the Big East-level which we just discussed, is one of the best conferences in the country.

AG: With the way that your NIL structure is currently set up, does Butler have the resources to compete with the other schools in the Big East?

GL: I think we're getting there. I'm really proud of the progress we've made. We have great alignment with our NIL collective. We're continuing to add more people and more resources and kind of really refine our NIL strategy. We'll certainly be sharing more about that soon. But I'm confident with the direction we're heading. We're certainly not where we want to be yet but we're making great progress. The NIL market continuously is changing and growing in frankly, an unsustainable way. But I do believe that we're well positioned, and we've made major strides over the past six months, 12 months, and we're going to continue to fight to do that and get creative around ways that we can invest in those opportunities for our student-athletes. So, we're not where we want to be yet, but we're trending in the right direction.

AG: What would you say to the person that thinks Butler needs to maybe lose other athletic programs or to shrink the size of the athletic department to funnel more of those resources toward basketball? Do you think that's something that you should consider? Is that something that's a realistic thing to do?

GL: I think there's a lot of questions and pressure around that and the national landscape right now. I would say for Butler University, we are extremely proud of the opportunities that we're able to offer all of our student-athletes in providing those opportunities is really important to our university. When you think about what they add on this campus. The diversity in pulling people from all over the country. The opportunity for them to represent this institution, whether it's a track uniform, or lacrosse or golf. These programs are really important to the overall culture of our athletics department and the university on a broader scale.

Butler University is committed to carrying a broad-based athletics program. And I don't think that that comes at the expense of our investment in men's basketball. Certainly, men's basketball is the economic engine when you think about our athletics programs. It is the one program that generates revenue that ultimately is going to help support all of our programs and so, the university is committed to continue to invest in that program and others in a way that's going to allow them to all continue to be more competitive on a national landscape.

But the biggest opportunity is philanthropy for us, and so that's where we're really going to make significant strides here in the short term and long term, but I think the university is committed to do what we need to do to stay competitive within our conference and nationally.

AG: You mentioned your fundraising background and philanthropy and giving and how that can help the school grow, but Butler has one of the smaller alumni bases (in the Big East). It doesn't necessarily have the big famous alumni like a Warren Buffett or T Boone Pickens. ... What are some of your challenges in terms of being a fundraiser and helping the program grow?

GL: Yeah, I think we are extremely well-positioned when you think about Butler University, our location. We're tucked in this beautiful bubble within a major media market in Indianapolis. And so, our opportunity I think, is to pull more people into Butler that are just Indianapolis people, that maybe don't have a Butler degree. Maybe don't have a tie to this institution yet. But a major gateway drug for that if you will, is to walk inside (Hinkle Fieldhouse) and watch Big East basketball in Hinkle. So I think there's a lot to love about this place. I mean, we truly live the Butler Way. When you experience Butler, there's something different about this place. It's family, it's people and I think when people feel that and experience it, it's something that it's a great thing to sell and something that people want to be a part of.

We've got to sell that vision to people that aren't in our alumni base. But we don't limit our fundraising efforts to alumni. We're looking for alumni, parents and friends. So we've got to grow that friends group, bring more people into the fold. And I think we have a really exciting brand to put in front of them and we're going to continue to find ways to build those relationships and partnerships throughout the Indianapolis community in a way that is going to be beneficial to all of our student-athletes and our ability to continue to invest.

AG: When you mentioned the Butler Way that's the tradition and players like yourself that have stayed in the program for multiple years. Is the Butler Way something that's sustainable? It seems like players at all levels are just here for one year and continue to look for a different opportunity. Can you build a steady tradition in today's college basketball landscape?

GL: That's a fair question. I think, ultimately, the Butler Way is our culture. It's, how we operate. It's how we act, interact and respond every day in this building. It's the way we represent our program on the court and off the court, the way we treat people. And so that's not going to change no matter who we bring in these doors. To represent our teams like that is the standard and that's the way we're going to operate. Your question about can our fans expect to be able to see people develop from freshmen to seniors and stay within our program, that's challenging. There's a lot of leverage on the student-athletes part right now. And I think our goal is going to be to continue to attract and retain the people that want to be at Butler for those reasons that are that are bigger than money. We still have to be in a place where we are providing resources. We're not bringing people here for money. But all those things that are synonymous with the Butler Way are the reasons why they're coming, but the money can't be the reason why they leave.

We've got to close the gap on the resources that we're able to offer and provide in a way that it makes it harder for them to leave. And so that's our goal right now. And ultimately, I believe that we're going to attract people for the right reasons and build a sustainable, competitive program year in and year out with people that fit us and have that that makeup that we're looking for to begin with.

AG: It seems like there's a lot of change going on within the athletics program as a whole. How do you feel about the current state of all the athletic programs?

GL: We have a great group of coaches. There has been some turnover in the past few years before I got here, but I feel really confident about the coaches that we have for our student-athletes here. Coach (Austin) Parkinson has the (women's basketball) program on an incredible trajectory right now. Last year, we were able to celebrate our best year in attendance in program's history. And we only expect that to continue to grow. Coach (Mike) Uremovich is doing an awesome job with our football program and I'm really excited about the future growth that we expect from him in that program. So the culture and the staff and the people are in a really good place and now my job and our staff's job is to continue to put more resources around them, more people around them in a way that allows them to continue to be more competitive and better support our student-athletes and their daily efforts to grow as a student and as an athlete and make sure that they're having an awesome experience at Butler.

AG: What would you say to the person who wants to know what you can do to make Butler a better place for everyone? What are you planning to bring to this university and what is something you want the Butler faithful to know about you?

GL: I would say you're not going to find somebody that's more passionate and believes more in the power of building Butler University. I'm going to do everything I can to ensure that the standard is upheld. The standard that Barry Collier has set for this place and all the great coaches and leaders that have come through here, that's going to be not only upheld, but we're going to raise it. We're going to continue to build on that foundation that they built. So, I'm just incredibly grateful and excited about this opportunity and looking forward to continuing to build it knowing we have some significant challenges ahead of us.

We're going to lean on the people behind these walls and the people in this community that can help us navigate these challenges ahead of us and we're going to do it in the Butler Way, in a way that allows us to I would say strategically grow in and adapt in this new environment, some of which we'll have control over, some of which we won't. But I'm excited about the future here and I would say to the community, anybody that wants to know how they can help Butler, buy a ticket. Come to games. Support our coaches and our student-athletes. We're going to have a lot to share in the near future about ways that they can invest deeper in that and some of the opportunities that we're looking to invest in. We hope that they're open to those conversations and they're going to help us be a part of building the momentum and be a part of a winner.

AG: You guys have always graduated your stars? Is that part of the Butler Way talk about that?

GL: Absolutely. Certainly, academics are a major priority for us. We just celebrated our collective student-athletes as a whole, 3.45 GPA in the fall semester. So we have incredibly high-achieving student-athletes. And it's very important to us that they're coming in here to earn a degree. Our track record is really strong there and we're going to continue that. Even those that left to pursue professional careers, it's very important to us and them that they come back and earn their degree. Actually, one of my teammates Shelvin Mack is currently re-enrolled at Butler and pursuing finishing his degree. He left a year early to pursue an NBA career and had a tremendous NBA career and now he's coming back to get his degree. So that's what it's all about, and we're gonna make sure that we're supporting them in those efforts and giving them all the resources while they're here to do that while they're here at Butler.

Follow IndyStar Butler Insider Akeem Glaspie on X at @THEAkeemGlaspie.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Q&A interview with new Butler athletic director Grant Leiendecker