Anthony Azama and Sarah Otey sat down for an interview with Student Life on Sept. 12. (Bri Nitsberg | Student Life)

Washington University Athletic Director Anthony Azama and University Athletic Association (UAA) Commissioner Sarah Otey sat down for an interview with Student Life on Thursday, Sept. 12. The interview came as administrators from all eight UAA schools wrapped up their annual meetings, hosted by WashU. Azama and Otey, who was appointed as the UAA’s second-ever commissioner in May, discussed topics like conference realignment; the impact of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) on Division III athletes; WashU’s plans for the land purchased from Fontbonne University; and what excites them about the UAA and WashU athletics for the 2024-25 school year.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Student Life (SL): Commissioner Otey, you just wrapped up meetings with the athletic directors from the different UAA schools. What are your plans for your first year in the job and long-term for the UAA?

Sarah Otey (SO): I consider [at least my first six months to be] my listening tour. I am taking over from a commissioner who’s been in the role for 37 years. He is a giant in Division III. So there’s no need for me to come in and make any massive changes. I think that there’s some modernization potential for the UAA brand — our external communications on our website, social media platforms — and that can begin in the immediate. The last thing that I think is relatively short-term: [The UAA comprises some of the] largest and most influential schools in the academic space, and I don’t know that we’re carrying that over into NCAA governance, so elevating the influence and profile of the UAA schools within the NCAA landscape is important to me. 

SL: Mr. Azama, what are your priorities and goals for WashU athletics this year?

Anthony Azama (AA): Every year, it’s the same. At the end of the day, I want to graduate student-athletes. And so it’s not necessarily about who we’re playing as much as what experience I am providing for every student-athlete that feels like they got a chance to compete in the postseason. I think that’s a unique experience. It’s something that I didn’t get a chance to experience in college. So I think this is my way of paying it forward for every young person here to maximize what this great institution can provide to set them up for a lifetime of success.

SL: Are there any new plans or initiatives for this year that haven’t been in place in the past? Is there anything different that you’re looking to do going forward?

AA: The points of emphasis are people, resources, facilities. From a resource standpoint, we’re looking at continuously being aggressive with the W Club and Annual Fund, because that allows us to make sure we’re trying to provide an equitable experience. One of the areas that I look at and evaluate is strength of schedule. I want our young people to experience playing the very best, because that’s why they come here.And then there’s some things that we need to do from a facility standpoint. The next big project for us that will start at the end of the academic year is our locker rooms and then also our equipment room. I think the other thing is that how we market ourselves is important. You’ve seen us in the postseason and how that [unites] all of us as Bears. I think the beauty of athletics is it has no labels to separate us, and I think you saw that in the postseason with women’s soccer, with the Chancellor being with students and celebrating. And then for the first time in my time here — I talked to some superfans who have been watching WashU basketball for decades — they saw a court storming. But I think what our external unit is trying to do is to bring and win our backyard — from the standpoint of campus, trying to create those partnerships.

SL: You touched on the facilities there briefly. Are there plans to use either the Fontbonne or Concordia Seminary land for athletic facilities?

AA: I think this is an exciting time to be here, and we want to do things in a way that is not going to only impact varsity athletes, but those students that participate in club and participate in intramural. And there will be some things that we could probably immediately do at Fontbonne. They don’t have a field, but everything indoors we could probably do. In their gym, we’re going to take advantage of that, but the long-term plan is going to be enhancing it to a certain level, to create a certain experience that our students have become accustomed to. I think having those other options is going to be really cool, especially when some parts of Mudd Field are going to be taken offline due to the Arts & Sciences building. 

SL: What’s the timeline on those projects?

AA: I want it tomorrow. [But] to be honest with you, I want to be respectful to the 90 student-athletes that Fontbonne has. I don’t want our presence over there to create a situation at the end of the day. [But] for us right now, we’re over-programmed in some spaces that I think makes the experience at times feel rushed. 

Azama said his goal is the same every year: “graduate student athletes.” (Bri Nitsberg | Student Life)

SL: Commissioner Otey, the landscape of college sports has been changing a lot over the past few years. How do those issues like NIL, conference realignment, and others affect the Division III level?

SO: I think that they already are affecting the Division III level, some of them more so than others. As you think about NIL, you’re not seeing the dollar values in Division III that you’re seeing in Division I. And so the way that I think that it’s been a really positive thing for students at schools like this is just allowing them to engage in some of those entrepreneurial opportunities that they’re doing anyway. Conference realignment has hit Division III. We’re fortunate, and at the UAA, our identity is so well-defined compared to some other Division III conferences, but there’s a lot of movement happening in other areas of Division III, and unfortunately, it felt like every week, for a while, a school’s closing, schools are merging. That’s going to also further impact where schools sit within conferences.

SL: On the issue of conference realignment, has the UAA looked at adding any new members? Have any members considered leaving the UAA?

SO: I’m probably too new to really answer that question. After this first year, it would probably be worth all of us sitting down and taking a look at what other schools are out there that might be closely aligned to our priorities and institutional strengths, but it’d be premature for me to speak on that at this point.

SL: Turning to WashU specifically, WashU has an NIL policy. Is that something that student-athletes are putting to use, and how is it impacting their lives on and off campus?

AA: Right now, there’s been a lot of conversations on what makes sense. The Missouri state law as it pertains to NIL — both college and high school — is a little bit more lenient than that of the rest of the country. The University has taken the position that we need to educate and then provide them the tools to be able to kind of navigate that landscape on their own. A year from now might be a little bit different, but what I’ve tried to do is keep the conversations open with our student-athletes.

SL: On the topic of conference realignment, what factors led to WashU football’s removal from the CCIW, and what options are you considering going forward?

AA: I really don’t want [it] to be a distraction from the work that these kids have put in. Right now, the mission remains the same. If you talk to our coaches and our student-athletes, they’ll tell you that at the end of the day, we want to compete for championships and we want to graduate our student-athletes. And the only other thing I’ll say is that we’re not surprised by the decision.

Sarah Otey was named the UAA’s second-ever commissioner after a stint leading the Ohio Athletic Conference. (Bri Nitsberg | Student Life)

SL: Is the UAA considering sponsoring football? Has that been in discussion at all?

SO: Not in my two-and-a-half months, but, you know, the UAA historically did sponsor football, and still has a number of institutions that sponsor football. So one of my harebrained ideas is whether we sponsor football or not, to create some type of environment where we can intentionally have UAA schools playing each other on some type of regular cadence and creating events out of those opportunities. 

AA: And a great example of that was when our non-conference game was against Chicago — I think that was our best attendance — and we were on the brink of including both of our medical campuses to get involved in the rivalry. I think our alums really like UAA football, and I know there’s been a lot of conversation between us and Carnegie Mellon University trying to reconnect and kind of bring back a game, a home and home contest. 

SL: For a Division III conference, the UAA is incredibly spread out geographically. What about these institutions makes it worth it for them to be together in one conference?

SO: Somebody described it to me once as an academic association bound together by athletic competition, and I think that these schools just see value competing against schools that are like-minded in their academic pursuits, and that seems to bind us together. Also, having come from other areas of Division III, the time, effort, [and] resources that our UAA institutions are willing to put in to support their student-athletes is unlike [any other]. I hope that eventually, we get the UAA brand elevated. All the [Athletic Directors] have heard me talk about the fact that the Ivy League is a brand. There’s no reason the UAA should be that much different. 

SL: What are you most excited for about this fall season and academic year in the UAA and with WashU athletics?

SO: I’m just excited to work with people like Anthony. I think there’s a ton of untapped potential that we have as an association. Normally, you don’t come out of meetings jazzed up, but I’m coming out of today’s meetings really jazzed up and just ready to get to work and see where we can take this thing. 

AA: This summer was tough. I felt like I owed it to those 16-17 young ladies [on the women’s basketball team] to find them another leader [after head coach Randi Henderson left], and to do it around this time is not easy. Within those 57-58 days traveling coast-to-coast, also in the south, we were pretty thorough. We think we found a great coach. I’ve been incredibly impressed — I’ve been in a couple of practices, 6 a.m. workouts — by what Coach Stone has done and what she’s leaned into, because it’s very rare that you can find somebody who has won almost 700 games who is [still] humble and really understands that this thing is about developing young people to be the best version of themselves. I’ve heard from them, they’re excited about it, they feel like there’s unfinished business. And I think there’s something to be said about the experience of last year, where a lot of programs felt like there’s unfinished business.