June 2, 2025 • 10 mins
University of New Haven's Athletic Director Devin Crosby discusses the future of UNH Sports.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So, Devin, what made you pick the University of New
Haven to become their athletic director.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, that's a great question. So I'll share this with
you again. I was a student athlete in college at
Slippery Rock and I competed against new Haven and there
was something about new Haven. And during my years of
competition running track, but also when I was reading the paper,
because again I'm from Pittsburgh, I would read now would
see new Haven versus Tollson. The next week new Haven
versus Slipper Rock, and I said, where is this place?
(00:28):
This is when I was younger. So I've always had
this affinity for new Haven. And in twenty nineteen you
started to hear this murmur about new Haven thinking about
Division one, and I really started to fixate and pay
attention to this place. And I'll tell you this. When
I got the call last year in twenty twenty four
about having this conversation about new Haven, I would have
(00:50):
walked from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to West Haven, Connecticut to have
this conversation. I would have walked a hitchhike or took
a bike. So when I got off of the job,
I could sits fast enough. And I'll share this with you,
Robin Ben. When I met President YenS Frederickson, I said,
this is the right place to be. This guy's a
visionary and as you know, to do well in college
(01:11):
athletics or higher education, the president, the AD and the
football coach have to be an alignment. And I could
clearly I was write in alignment with Jens Fredrickson. So
I'm excited to be here, all right.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
So twenty nineteen you made mention of this, and we're
just blown away by it because in twenty nineteen we
heard the same murmurs and we were like, no way, dude,
new Haven, no way, they're going to be D one,
and then the announcement happened and we're kind of in shock.
Let's start with this, why should New Haven go D one?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know, I'll share it sw with you. Over the
past nine months, we've been functioning like a Division one,
So really, I don't even look at this as a reclassification,
Robin Ben. We're just playing where we need to be.
We've been functioning like a D one for these past
nine months. We've looked at our budgets, we've been more efficient,
we've hired the white coaches. But I'm going to share
this with you. We have a secret sauce, but it's
(02:05):
a public secret sauce and nobody can duplicate it. Here's
what it is, and I'm not even gonna whisper it.
I'm gonna give you to me loud and clear. We
literally care for the human doing. Now. What I mean
by that is we care about our students where this
used sports as a platform and help them become the
best versions of themselves. And that's our secret sauce. Because
now in Division one it's all about paying players and
(02:28):
revenue sharing. You almost look at student athletes as commodities
to a certain extent. We don't do that. We literally
care about these students in such a way or helping
become the best versions of themselves and we just happen
to have the platform of sports. Stay tuned. This is
gonna be a special year. It's gonna be a special
journey if you see what we're doing in Division one.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Talking to Devin Crosby, he is the new New Haven
Athletic Director at the University of New Haven. Wherever you've been,
whether it be Lynn or or Roberts, you're always upgrading
facilities things like that. We talked to David Benedict from
Yukon every week and we talk about a lot of
the things. When he came from Arkansas here was to
upgrade a lot of the facilities. What do you maybe
(03:08):
looking to upgrade. What are some of the things in
terms of revenue you need to bring in to really
go Division one?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah? Great one. So when you guys come on the
campus on September twenty for that football game, you're going
to see we have actually arguably one of the nicest
weight rooms in the country right now, irrespective of division
compliments of David Peterson, he's a former football player one
of our board of trustee members. Doesn't amazing. We're talking
about a fifteen to twenty million dollar facility. And again
(03:39):
this is when we were Division two and now we
have this beautiful facility. We just broke ground on a
third flour yesterday, adding an extension to it for all
of our coaches to be there. So we already have
amazing facility. What we need is now focus on We're
got to focus on a nutrition area because again, when
you're playing Division one, you got to make sure you're
feeding your student athletes in an appropriate manner. So we're working
(04:01):
on that with a donor right now as we speak.
I'll be speaking to that person in about two weeks,
flying out to their city. And we're also going to
look at our arena. Here's what's so important, Robin Ben.
We've been playing Division two and we were, you know,
obviously very satisfied at Division two prior to this moment.
But we're gonna have to upgrade our basketball arena. And
we're speaking with another donor. We have Jeff Hazel played
(04:23):
football for us. We're working with him right now to
expand our basketball arena. But here's the reason why, Robin Ben.
We are currently in negotiation to play a Big ten
school here at new Haven this November.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Wow, bign I didn't stay Little Tannon, I didn't stay
small ten. I didn't stay Northeast End. I said Big ten.
And they have the contract. We're just waiting on a signature.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Well.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I love going to New Haven football games. I tell
these guys all the time, at least get one in
my system every year and I get all charged up.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I love it. I love it. We got that. Are
you up right now?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So here's two things about my experience at ear Ballpark one.
I've already talked to you about this off the air.
That blue turf, dude, and you wear blue jerseys. I
can't see the safety of the corner. If I'm reading
cover four cover three, it blends right in. Are you
keeping the blue turf? Are your grandfathered in on that?
And here's my biggest beef with going to New Haven games?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Parking? What are you gonna do about that?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah? Okay, So let's talk about Big Blue first, all right.
So with Big Blue, we're coming at you full steam
with the blue on. It's almost like a camelflass for us,
and we are unapologetic that the fact you can't tell
a cover three from a nose down or a mic.
So we're excited about the Big Blue and we're gonna
keep it rolling. Now here's on the parking. We gotta
(05:47):
fix it because now, I mean, we're gonna be expanding
the stadium at some point in time, but just to demand,
we already sold out half of our games last year
at Division two. So yes, we're gonna have to dress parking.
We're working on that right now. And with the addition
of the Peterson Performance Center, as I talked about that,
fronts facility area. That's going to give us some natural
(06:08):
additional parking spaces. But again we have a lot of
work to do because the demand is there.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Talking to Devin Crosby, he's the athletic director of the
University of New Haven. I grew up in Hampden, moved
to Southington. Some of my teammates at Suthington High went
to University new Haven.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
This is way before your time.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Porky Vieira was the baseball coach there for like forty
years and it's a great go to school. Yeah, d
one recruiting, we talk about this all the time. With
the Yukon it's very competitive in New England. I'm sure
a lot of guys would love to that can't go
to Yukon would love to go to the University new Haven.
How excited are you? You're probably going to have to
(06:46):
bring in some new coaches.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So here's what I'll share with you to that question
about you talk about those people that are looking to
go some of the bigger schools and they might go
to Power for this is where my public service announcement
comes in right right now, If we had a camera,
I would say put the camera right on my eyes
right now, So let's take that visual. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa,
you send your kid to New Haven because we care
(07:10):
about the human good. We have empathy for your student athlete,
and we will help him become the best version of
himself or herself. That's the PSA. Now I'll go to
your point right now for a division on what we
have to do. We have to momentary right at this
very moment. We got to grow our donor base. We
have one of them. Listen, I've worked at the University
(07:31):
of Virginia, I've worked at the University of Houston. I've
been big, I've been small, I've been everywhere. What I've
seen here, the football alumni group specifically, is the most
dedicated alumni group I've ever experienced in my entire career.
That's comparing it to Houston and Virginia. So we're going
to expand that donor group, and we now got to
start getting other people that played sports here and just
(07:52):
our general student body of former lumps to start giving
back because we have a lot of work to do.
But it's going to be fun work because here's all sherify.
You talk about your friends who went to new Haven,
their degree just expanded ten times. On May sixth, when
we made that announcement, we had four hundred and ninety
five million potential impressions just that day alone, before we
(08:12):
even touched one ball or competed in one event. There
was a lot to come here and store at New Haven?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Anyc sounds perfect?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
What were the negotiations like or just to talk about
joining that conference and like who kind of approached to
when you got the ball rolling?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You know, I'll just give it to you real quickly.
So you've probably already read about this, but some of
your listeners this might be news. But we opened up
our brands campus in Saudi Arabia and that was Jens Ferguson,
our president. Again, he's a visionary, so he literally had
just came back from Saudi Arabia. I sat down with
him and I said, we need to find a way
to maximize this through sports, some kind of way. Here's
what I'll tell you, Robin ben As I was in
(08:51):
that meeting with President Frederson, I got an alert on
my phone from a trusted source that the nc DOUBLE
is about to have a moratorium on this schools going
into Division one and you can do the mask because
the more schools are in there, that's more revenue share.
And we know that CBS and Hasten contracts for coming
up in twenty thirty. At that very moment, I showed
YenS my boss the phone, and I said, what are
(09:13):
we going to do? And it took us forty eight hours.
We said, can we raise the money? Yes? Is there
an appetite for this campus to do this? Yes, we're
going to do it. It's the right thing for the enrollment,
it's the right thing for the recruiting of New Haven.
And we moved fast. Again. When a president and an
ad are aligned, amazing things happen.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Dude, we're excited. We know you're excited. Before you go.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Before you got here, University of Harford went D one
down to D three, So it's nice to see a
D two go up to a D one.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Man. That's fantastic. Great job, Devin.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Oh, thank you very much, and I I'll repeat it again.
We're playing where we should have already been over the
past nine months. We're rolling here.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
September twentieth, Saginaw Valley. I got a headset and I'm
calling offensive plays third down especially.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You got it. You got it, then listen it. But listen.
You better come cuickt on third down because Coach Powell,
he will say you can look at you through your soul.
You caught the wrong play on that third down, you better.
You better start game playing, and you started better prepping
right now
So, Devin, what made you pick the University of New
Haven to become their athletic director.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, that's a great question. So I'll share this with
you again. I was a student athlete in college at
Slippery Rock and I competed against new Haven and there
was something about new Haven. And during my years of
competition running track, but also when I was reading the paper,
because again I'm from Pittsburgh, I would read now would
see new Haven versus Tollson. The next week new Haven
versus Slipper Rock, and I said, where is this place?
(00:28):
This is when I was younger. So I've always had
this affinity for new Haven. And in twenty nineteen you
started to hear this murmur about new Haven thinking about
Division one, and I really started to fixate and pay
attention to this place. And I'll tell you this. When
I got the call last year in twenty twenty four
about having this conversation about new Haven, I would have
(00:50):
walked from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to West Haven, Connecticut to have
this conversation. I would have walked a hitchhike or took
a bike. So when I got off of the job,
I could sits fast enough. And I'll share this with you,
Robin Ben. When I met President YenS Frederickson, I said,
this is the right place to be. This guy's a
visionary and as you know, to do well in college
(01:11):
athletics or higher education, the president, the AD and the
football coach have to be an alignment. And I could
clearly I was write in alignment with Jens Fredrickson. So
I'm excited to be here, all right.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
So twenty nineteen you made mention of this, and we're
just blown away by it because in twenty nineteen we
heard the same murmurs and we were like, no way, dude,
new Haven, no way, they're going to be D one,
and then the announcement happened and we're kind of in shock.
Let's start with this, why should New Haven go D one?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know, I'll share it sw with you. Over the
past nine months, we've been functioning like a Division one,
So really, I don't even look at this as a reclassification,
Robin Ben. We're just playing where we need to be.
We've been functioning like a D one for these past
nine months. We've looked at our budgets, we've been more efficient,
we've hired the white coaches. But I'm going to share
this with you. We have a secret sauce, but it's
(02:05):
a public secret sauce and nobody can duplicate it. Here's
what it is, and I'm not even gonna whisper it.
I'm gonna give you to me loud and clear. We
literally care for the human doing. Now. What I mean
by that is we care about our students where this
used sports as a platform and help them become the
best versions of themselves. And that's our secret sauce. Because
now in Division one it's all about paying players and
(02:28):
revenue sharing. You almost look at student athletes as commodities
to a certain extent. We don't do that. We literally
care about these students in such a way or helping
become the best versions of themselves and we just happen
to have the platform of sports. Stay tuned. This is
gonna be a special year. It's gonna be a special
journey if you see what we're doing in Division one.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Talking to Devin Crosby, he is the new New Haven
Athletic Director at the University of New Haven. Wherever you've been,
whether it be Lynn or or Roberts, you're always upgrading
facilities things like that. We talked to David Benedict from
Yukon every week and we talk about a lot of
the things. When he came from Arkansas here was to
upgrade a lot of the facilities. What do you maybe
(03:08):
looking to upgrade. What are some of the things in
terms of revenue you need to bring in to really
go Division one?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah? Great one. So when you guys come on the
campus on September twenty for that football game, you're going
to see we have actually arguably one of the nicest
weight rooms in the country right now, irrespective of division
compliments of David Peterson, he's a former football player one
of our board of trustee members. Doesn't amazing. We're talking
about a fifteen to twenty million dollar facility. And again
(03:39):
this is when we were Division two and now we
have this beautiful facility. We just broke ground on a
third flour yesterday, adding an extension to it for all
of our coaches to be there. So we already have
amazing facility. What we need is now focus on We're
got to focus on a nutrition area because again, when
you're playing Division one, you got to make sure you're
feeding your student athletes in an appropriate manner. So we're working
(04:01):
on that with a donor right now as we speak.
I'll be speaking to that person in about two weeks,
flying out to their city. And we're also going to
look at our arena. Here's what's so important, Robin Ben.
We've been playing Division two and we were, you know,
obviously very satisfied at Division two prior to this moment.
But we're gonna have to upgrade our basketball arena. And
we're speaking with another donor. We have Jeff Hazel played
(04:23):
football for us. We're working with him right now to
expand our basketball arena. But here's the reason why, Robin Ben.
We are currently in negotiation to play a Big ten
school here at new Haven this November.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Wow, bign I didn't stay Little Tannon, I didn't stay
small ten. I didn't stay Northeast End. I said Big ten.
And they have the contract. We're just waiting on a signature.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Well.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I love going to New Haven football games. I tell
these guys all the time, at least get one in
my system every year and I get all charged up.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I love it. I love it. We got that. Are
you up right now?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So here's two things about my experience at ear Ballpark one.
I've already talked to you about this off the air.
That blue turf, dude, and you wear blue jerseys. I
can't see the safety of the corner. If I'm reading
cover four cover three, it blends right in. Are you
keeping the blue turf? Are your grandfathered in on that?
And here's my biggest beef with going to New Haven games?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Parking? What are you gonna do about that?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah? Okay, So let's talk about Big Blue first, all right.
So with Big Blue, we're coming at you full steam
with the blue on. It's almost like a camelflass for us,
and we are unapologetic that the fact you can't tell
a cover three from a nose down or a mic.
So we're excited about the Big Blue and we're gonna
keep it rolling. Now here's on the parking. We gotta
(05:47):
fix it because now, I mean, we're gonna be expanding
the stadium at some point in time, but just to demand,
we already sold out half of our games last year
at Division two. So yes, we're gonna have to dress parking.
We're working on that right now. And with the addition
of the Peterson Performance Center, as I talked about that,
fronts facility area. That's going to give us some natural
(06:08):
additional parking spaces. But again we have a lot of
work to do because the demand is there.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Talking to Devin Crosby, he's the athletic director of the
University of New Haven. I grew up in Hampden, moved
to Southington. Some of my teammates at Suthington High went
to University new Haven.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
This is way before your time.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Porky Vieira was the baseball coach there for like forty
years and it's a great go to school. Yeah, d
one recruiting, we talk about this all the time. With
the Yukon it's very competitive in New England. I'm sure
a lot of guys would love to that can't go
to Yukon would love to go to the University new Haven.
How excited are you? You're probably going to have to
(06:46):
bring in some new coaches.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So here's what I'll share with you to that question
about you talk about those people that are looking to
go some of the bigger schools and they might go
to Power for this is where my public service announcement
comes in right right now, If we had a camera,
I would say put the camera right on my eyes
right now, So let's take that visual. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa,
you send your kid to New Haven because we care
(07:10):
about the human good. We have empathy for your student athlete,
and we will help him become the best version of
himself or herself. That's the PSA. Now I'll go to
your point right now for a division on what we
have to do. We have to momentary right at this
very moment. We got to grow our donor base. We
have one of them. Listen, I've worked at the University
(07:31):
of Virginia, I've worked at the University of Houston. I've
been big, I've been small, I've been everywhere. What I've
seen here, the football alumni group specifically, is the most
dedicated alumni group I've ever experienced in my entire career.
That's comparing it to Houston and Virginia. So we're going
to expand that donor group, and we now got to
start getting other people that played sports here and just
(07:52):
our general student body of former lumps to start giving
back because we have a lot of work to do.
But it's going to be fun work because here's all sherify.
You talk about your friends who went to new Haven,
their degree just expanded ten times. On May sixth, when
we made that announcement, we had four hundred and ninety
five million potential impressions just that day alone, before we
(08:12):
even touched one ball or competed in one event. There
was a lot to come here and store at New Haven?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Anyc sounds perfect?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
What were the negotiations like or just to talk about
joining that conference and like who kind of approached to
when you got the ball rolling?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You know, I'll just give it to you real quickly.
So you've probably already read about this, but some of
your listeners this might be news. But we opened up
our brands campus in Saudi Arabia and that was Jens Ferguson,
our president. Again, he's a visionary, so he literally had
just came back from Saudi Arabia. I sat down with
him and I said, we need to find a way
to maximize this through sports, some kind of way. Here's
what I'll tell you, Robin ben As I was in
(08:51):
that meeting with President Frederson, I got an alert on
my phone from a trusted source that the nc DOUBLE
is about to have a moratorium on this schools going
into Division one and you can do the mask because
the more schools are in there, that's more revenue share.
And we know that CBS and Hasten contracts for coming
up in twenty thirty. At that very moment, I showed
YenS my boss the phone, and I said, what are
(09:13):
we going to do? And it took us forty eight hours.
We said, can we raise the money? Yes? Is there
an appetite for this campus to do this? Yes, we're
going to do it. It's the right thing for the enrollment,
it's the right thing for the recruiting of New Haven.
And we moved fast. Again. When a president and an
ad are aligned, amazing things happen.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Dude, we're excited. We know you're excited. Before you go.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Before you got here, University of Harford went D one
down to D three, So it's nice to see a
D two go up to a D one.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Man. That's fantastic. Great job, Devin.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Oh, thank you very much, and I I'll repeat it again.
We're playing where we should have already been over the
past nine months. We're rolling here.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
September twentieth, Saginaw Valley. I got a headset and I'm
calling offensive plays third down especially.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You got it. You got it, then listen it. But listen.
You better come cuickt on third down because Coach Powell,
he will say you can look at you through your soul.
You caught the wrong play on that third down, you better.
You better start game playing, and you started better prepping
right now
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.