Mr. Gilbert emphasized that USM is nationally competitive in several of the sports in which it competes, specifically, football, men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women's track & field in spite of an athletic budget that is less than 25% of the budget of the larger competitors. He also stressed that 216 of USM’s 350 student-athletes achieved a 3.0-grade point average (B) or higher in the 2017-2018 school year.
USM participates athletically in Conference USA. USM Baseball player, Nick Sandlin, was named as Conference USA’s Male Athlete of the year in addition to achieving a 3.91 GPA as a Construction Engineering Technology major.
Mr. Gilbert also discussed three issues facing the NCAA, including the number and type of scholarships universities can give to student-athletes in various sports, betting on collegiate athletic contests, and Grant-in-Aid Antitrust Litigation that could change the way that college athletes are compensated.
Prior to joining USM in 2017, Mr. Gilbert was Executive Sr. Associate Athletic Director at the University of Tennessee and prior to that Associate Athletic Director the University of Alabama. He is a graduate of Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina and received an MS in Sports Administration from Eastern Kentucky University. He (second from right) is shown in the following photo with Club President Anna Powers (right), club Immediate Past President Witt Ruffin (second from the left) and Charles Lindsay (left). We welcome Mr. Gilbert to MS and thank him for what he is doing for USM, particularly the student-athletes. 