IRVINE, Calif. (March 26, 2021) – Big West Conference Commissioner Dan Butterly today announced the hiring of Kristi Giddings as Senior Associate Commissioner – Governance and Legal Affairs/Senior Woman Administrator.
 
In her role, Giddings will lead the Big West’s existing governance and compliance staff, serve as an advisor for institutions on NCAA regulatory matters, maintain and improve upon Conference-wide efforts to fulfill Big West and NCAA compliance expectations, and serve as the Conference internal legal advisor. She will also serve as the lead liaison to the institutional Senior Woman Administrators leadership group. In addition, she will have sport oversight responsibilities.
 
“I am excited to announce the hiring of Kristi Giddings to the Big West Conference team,” said Butterly. “Kristi was selected from an outstanding pool of candidates. She is an outstanding communicator, and the best fit for the Big West office and our membership. We look forward to Kristi’s knowledge and expertise as college athletics continues to undergo significant changes in the months and years ahead.”
 
“I am thrilled to begin my new role with the Big West Conference and embrace this opportunity to serve the membership,” said Giddings. “College athletics presents a continuously changing landscape, and I am looking forward to combining my on-campus experience with my legal background to help navigate the conference through the challenges ahead.”
 
Giddings brings extensive experience at the Division I institutional level managing campus compliance programs and as a law practitioner. She spent the past year at George Mason University as the Deputy Athletics Director for Legal, Compliance, and NCAA Governance, overseeing all athletics compliance efforts, including education, investigations, interpretations, monitoring, reporting, and waiver and reinstatement requests. Giddings also served on the steering committee for the ICA Diversity and Inclusion Committee to develop a departmental culture that celebrates and fosters equity, diversity and inclusion in the athletics department.
 
From 2012-19, Giddings worked in compliance at the University of Maryland. She was the Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance for three years, then received a promotion to Associate Athletics Director for Compliance. She was in charge of managing the university’s athletics compliance office, supervising staff and overseeing all aspects of the compliance program. Having earned the Athletics Director’s award for excellence three times (September 2014, October 2016, October 2017), Giddings oversaw student-athlete reinstatement, initial eligibility, progress toward degree, and legislative relief waiver requests, with a near 100 percent success rate.
 
Giddings also spent two years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the most recent role of Associate Athletics Director/Senior Woman Administrator. Giddings managed, monitored and enforced a comprehensive compliance program for Division I and II sports. She supervised six of the 10 varsity sports, served as the University’s SAAC advisor, and created and wrote the University’s first Department of Athletics Compliance Manual.

Prior to making a direct entrance into the world of collegiate athletics, Giddings became acquainted with NCAA rules compliance as an attorney from 2006-10 for the firm of Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP in Kansas City, Mo. She worked with a team of attorneys to represent the NCAA in a variety of areas, related to rules compliance and violations of the NCAA Division I Manual by institutions, coaches, and student-athletes. Giddings also represented school districts on issues such as Title IX compliance.
 
Giddings earned her Bachelor of Arts in Exercise and Sports Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2003. She received her Juris Doctor from Marquette University Law School in May 2006. She was the Sports Law Review editor at Marquette, where she also earned a certificate from the National Sports Law Institute.

About the Big West
The Big West Conference was formed in 1969 and is a member of NCAA Division I with 11 academically and athletically prominent institutions consisting of Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, Hawai‘i, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara.

The conference sponsors 18 sports at the NCAA Division I level: baseball, softball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s beach volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field and women’s water polo. For more information, visit BigWest.org or follow the Big West Conference on Twitter @BigWestSports and @BigWestHoops.