After eight and a half years as associate athletic director of external affairs for Ball State athletics, Matt Wolfert is leaving to take a position with the NCAA. He's known he was leaving to take the job offer for almost a month, but didn't make any public comment until he tweeted the news Friday.
Wolfert will work as a director of corporate relations for the championships section of the NCAA and will work with corporate partners the NCAA has. The sponsors are for all 89 NCAA Championships from the Divison I, II and III levels.
"We are in the business of making sure [the sponsors] get what they're promised," Wolfert said.
Wolfert will also take part of the NCAA trademarking and licensing with the equipment for all the NCAA Championships. His job will include him mainly being in Indianapolis where the NCAA headquarters is located, but he will also be at the NCAA Championships with any corporate partners.
But he and his family will continue living in Muncie as he works for the NCAA. Wolfert said the decision to decide to commute between the two cities came down to keeping his family in the Muncie community.
"It's more of the selflessness of saying 'I can drive and do the commute because I need to keep the stability for my kids,'" he said. "If we didn't enjoy the community, it would make a big difference. We like being here and like calling this place home. That makes the decision a little easier."
At Ball State, Wolfert's responsibilities have been to work with the relations in the community, work with marketing and promotions and work with ticket sales and operations. Most of his time was spent with people related to Ball State and the fans.
Since he will still be in Muncie, he said he plans on making appearances at Ball State games as much as he can. He said he's even had current suite holders inviting him to join them in their suite for upcoming football games.
The job opening has been posted on several sites in The Indianapolis Star and on the NCAA website, but no replacement has been found yet.
His last day on the job is Friday, and while he said it was a hard decision to leave Ball State, he's excited for his new opportunity.
"It's been a tremendous opportunity to serve the Cardinal Nation and move the needle," Wolfert said. "I like to say in my time we moved things forward. We have a lot of work to do still, but every school in the country does. I do feel like we've made a lot of progress and I'm proud of our student athletes and what we've accomplished. Great things are ahead for Ball State."
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