OPINION: Kevin Griffin Will Win at Oregon State

In an introductory press conference Tuesday afternoon, new Oregon State athletic director Kevin painted a giant red bullseye on his orange & black athletics department:

"We are going to win."

Griffin, tapped to succeed the retiring Scott Barnes, is a relative unknown. After several years as an associate athletic director at his alma mater "the" Ohio State University, the Beaver State's O-S-U hired him to lead their sports teams forward. This piece spotlights two reasons why they made the right decision.

Griffin Has Buy-in from Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy

Athletics are not a top priority for Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy, nor should they be. OSU is a prestigious Carnegie Foundation R1 Doctoral University with "very high research spending and doctorate production", and Murthy herself is a world renowned scholar in the study of mechanical engineering. Her highest priority is managing Oregon's largest university, with over thirty-eight thousand students enrolled in 2024, consistently smashing enrollment numbers every year. Oregon State's engineering school is the fifth largest of its kind in the country, and Oregon State now proudly brands itself as Oregon's Research University.

Despite all of that, it is notable to see Murthy personally invested in the future of Oregon State athletics. Back in December, she excitedly kicked off Jamarcus Shephard's introductory press conference. On Tuesday, she returned to the Coastal Club at Reser Stadium. After her comments, Griffin shared the most important advice his new boss recently offered him:

"President Murthy said, 'This is our focus, and this is what we have to do', it wasn't 'Win, and...', it wasn't 'Win, like maybe....', it was 'Win', and so we've got to be able to do that. Having that support from the university matters a lot."

With Murthy's full support, Griffin can hit the ground running.

Griffin Can Solve Oregon State's Biggest Problem

The past three years have seen many notable departures in the transfer portal. Oregon State's football team nosedived after losing DJ Uiagalelei and Damien Martinez. The men's basketball program slumped after losing all-conference stars Nate Kingz & Michael Rataj. Oregon State's women's basketball team famously lost almost their entire roster to the portal, before miraculously recovering with an NCAA tournament bid.

I don't fault players for leaving. In the NIL era, student-athletes can make money off their incredible talents, and the transfer portal makes them de-facto free agents every year, free to sign for the highest price. Obviously, Oregon State hasn't offered the highest price, but that may change under Griffin.

At Ohio State, Griffin focused on NIL and revenue generation. In his introductory presser Tuesday afternoon, the new Oregon State AD was asked point-blank about his starting agenda in Corvallis, and his answer illuminated why the Beavers hired him:

"We're going to do an evaluation of everyone on our staff, and particularly in the areas where they're driving revenue specifically, to support our teams. We're going to make sure that's addressed right away. At some point in time in the near future, I'll sit down with the team, understand what their work looks like, whose in what seat, and what changes we may need to make, but we will focus on a couple of things: Number one, our finances, the revenues that we're bringing in. Number two, the creativity around that in a CFO type of role and the work that they're doing to help us think through that, and third, helping us lead all of our sports in really projecting out over the next four to five years of what excellence looks like."

Previously, Oregon State hasn't had the money to compete in the transfer portal. That's been a problem, but clearly Griffin is focused on a solution.

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