NIU athletic director Sean Frazier says he has ‘not been contacted’ about Michigan State job

DeKALB – As multiple reports have connected him to the soon-to-be-vacant Michigan State athletic director job, NIU AD Sean Frazier said Monday during the school’s media day that his focus remains on his current job.

“It’s more about what NIU is doing than worrying about little old me,” Frazier said. “Obviously, I’m humbled by whatever backroom stuff is going on, but at this point, I have not been contacted nor do I need to comment about someone else’s athletic director job.”

Coaches from four fall sports spoke on the state of their teams as well as Frazier. NIU football coach Thomas Hammock used the opportunity to announce that sixth-year senior Kyle Pugh was injured in the spring and will miss the season.

Pugh also missed most of the 2017 and 2019 seasons. Hammock said Pugh still will have a leadership role with the team.

“He will still be involved with our football team,” Hammock said.

Hammock also joked that when he remembered Monday was media day, he was immediately thinking it would, as many things have been during the COVID-19 pandemic, be an online event.

“When I walked in this morning, the first thing I did was to charge my iPad because I remembered it was media day,” Hammock said. “I just assumed we’re doing Zoom.”

[ Hammock: NIU about 90% vaccinated for COVID-19 ]

Frazier said the athletic department is “open for business” as long as all the proper protocols and precautions are taken.

“At the end of the day – I came up here in a mask, I’ll leave here in a mask – we’re dealing with the new normal,” Frazier said. “We’re dealing with the safety restrictions and other things we have to adhere to. But it’s not odd to us. It’s something we’re used to, we’ll continue to be used to. We have great protocols in place. We have it down now. I hate to say it that way, but we have it down now.”

Frazier also talked about how Texas and Oklahoma’s recent decision to join the SEC will have a ripple effect throughout college football.

He said he’s not sure specifically what it will look like for the Mid-American Conference, but conference expansion, he said, likely will not be limited just to the SEC.

“It would be naive of me to say it won’t affect the MAC. That’s not the truth,” Frazier said. “What the truth is, is that we’re one of the most stable conferences in the country. We know who we are. ... But the reality of conference expansion is going to happen. I don’t have to be Nostradamus to tell you that.”

As for any hint of what that would look like, Frazier said he doesn’t know.

“The changes you saw with Texas and Oklahoma is really a large watershed moment with the so-called super-conference,” Frazier said. “You’re going to have a real thirst to get stability so there’s no uncertainty. And we’re going to have to start to think a little out of the box, maybe instead of a partner in the Midwest, there may be something going on out west, something in the South.”

Frazier also talked about another, different type of shift in the college football landscape: the allowance for players to strike deals to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Profiting off NILs was legalized in Illinois on July 1 and approved by the NCAA a few days later, but Frazier said he didn’t have the exact number, or even a ballpark figure, of how many NIU athletes have taken advantage of NIL rules, as it changes on a daily basis, he said.

[ Frazier: NIL law, end of educational benefit limits ‘a long time coming’ ]

He said the school is staying active in helping athletes determine what’s best for them, including sorting through potential financial ramifications of the new income affecting their student-aid packages.

“God bless them. This is an opportunity for them,” Frazier said. “I remember when cost of attendance broke. ‘The sky is falling.’ The sky is not falling. We’re fine. We have to modernize what we do for our student-athletes.”

Frazier also said the transfer portal is here to stay but would like to see additional protections for athletes in place.

“Young man, gets into the transfer portal, has a scholarship offer here, goes into the black hole of the portal, and comes out of the backside penniless,” Frazier said. “For me, as a young person, a person of color, to receive a scholarship was the only way for me to stand before you here today was to be educated through that mechanism.”