Baylor Athletic Director Doug McNamee Talks Spring Football, NIL, Culture, and More
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Baylor AD Doug McNamee sat down and talked about a variety of topics regarding Baylor recently. Let's dive into some of the topics and quotes that were notable.
Fan-first era
Baylor officially brought back Doug McNamee as the school's athletic director in December of last year. He got right to work, ushering in the "fan-first era" in Baylor sports. He sat down for an interview on the Baylor Coach's Show on Monday.
"That's our commitment here."
— Baylor Athletics (@BaylorAthletics) May 10, 2026
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"We’re going to talk about [the fan-first commitment] this year, and then we’re not going to talk about it again because it just needs to be the fabric of who we are... doing is better than saying," said McNamee.
McNamee has stated before that everything is being reevaluated in Baylor athletics in order to put the fans first; one of those things is the concession prices that are set to be lowered across all sports.
"Every decision we make, what is in the best interest of a fan?" said McNamee. "It’s a short-term investment for a long-term gain. It’s certainly not the most cost-effective plan for us to cut concessions prices... but we think it's the right play to get people engaged."
Changes across NCAA and the Big 12
With the rapidly changing landscape of collegiate athletics, universities across the country need an athletic director who can quickly adapt to circumstances.
"The business of college athletics has changed... every day. There’s so much news; it certainly feels at a higher volume than what it’s ever been before," said McNamee.
The interview also covered a broader Big 12 scope of Baylor under the conference's commissioner, Brett Yormark.
"[Yormark is] a disruptor and a first mover... The Big 12 needs Baylor at its best to be where we want to be," said McNamee.
NIL
NIL is probably the biggest topic surrounding an athletic director's role. McNamee discussed how NIL damages team culture and Baylor has to keep their guard up.
"Because of NIL, there’s a little bit more separation in the community of student athletes. Money can do that, and I think that there’s definitely a little bit of a division that is forming across college athletics between the sports that have NIL and the sports that don’t."
McNamee puts extreme value on relationships within teams at Baylor and wants to make sure that NIL doesn't damage culture.
"That collective community of Baylor athletes is special... I want to be very intentional because naturally I think NIL creates some separation that I think we have to be cautious for," said McNamee.
Baylor Football Spring Ball
The new AD has been tapped into the Baylor football team over the spring practices and has some takeaways.
"I think you can lose games in the spring. You probably can’t win them, but you can lose them. And I don’t think we lost games this spring," said McNamee.
Yet again highlighting his value on culture, McNamee was able to get a pulse on people close to the practice about the morale level across the team.
"I talk to people that were pretty objective... and they’ve said that there was more encouraging, positive energy than what they’ve seen in the past."
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Bennett is an undergrad student at Baylor University, studying journalism on the sports track. He is from the DFW area and grew up playing and watching sports, which inspired him to pursue sports writing.
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