Hailing from a Division I school that’s crazy about its sports, one University of Kentucky College of Communication and Information alumnus is leading the charge for DI football across the nation.
Ty Halpin, a 1996 journalism graduate, has spent over 20 years working for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. While he’s held multiple positions through the organization, he was most recently promoted to director of championships and alliances for Division I football. As a former high school athlete and life-long sports fan, he’s undoubtedly doing what he loves.
“I really didn’t have a light bulb moment when I decided I should be in sports as a vocation—it just sort of was always part of my life,” Halpin said. “I love how most sports bring many different people and perspectives together to build a team, and I’ve always sort of been that way in my personal life too.”
Growing up in western New York, Halpin didn’t automatically think of UK as a contender for his academic home. But after visiting campus, he knew that UK would give him enough options to set the tone for the rest of his life.
Although he found UK, he claims journalism found him. Halpin knew when he came into college that he was interested in working in athletics, but he didn’t have a plan for what that would look like. That changed when he joined the Kentucky Kernel and UK Athletics. Through working as a writer and editor at the Kernel, he learned the importance of communication and creativity. And through working as a full-time intern for the Athletics Department, he learned the ins and outs of the administrative side of college athletics.
“Just as the Kernel gave me a real-life laboratory in journalism, being a UK Athletics intern set the foundation for what ended up being my career,” Halpin said.
As an undergrad, Halpin had already declared any position with the NCAA as a future dream job. So in 1999 when he was being interviewed by the nonprofit, he already felt accomplished before he even landed the job.
That year, Halpin started with the NCAA primarily as a writer and editor of all the organization’s publications, including championship operations manuals, articles in the NCAA trade publication and writing committee reports. He also served as the committee liaison for some of the NCAA’s playing rules committees, helping to decide alongside coaches and administrators what rule changes would improve certain sports.
As the world became more technologically advanced, so did the NCAA. With the move to relocate publications online, the publishing staff was also relocated out of the national office--but Halpin got to stay with the playing rules committees. He continued to work with 19 different sports as the NCAA added on officiating-related duties to his job description. Not only did he help make rules, but he then was also part of the team that helped enforce them.
Now as the director of DI football, he supports the Division I Football Oversight Committee. This includes a lot of strategic and long-term planning to help manage all aspects of the sport, from recruiting to practices to bowl games and more. In the last couple years, a large part of his job has been learning how to navigate COVID-19 and return to gameplay, which he said has been rewarding.
Despite it being years since he was last an athlete or a college student, Halpin finds it a special privilege to aid them. It’s his hope to continue to help make lifetime memories for collegiate sports teams and their fans as he has for decades now.