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Meet Michael Oblinger, UNCW's newest athletic director

Michael Cuneo
Wilmington StarNews

Over the past decade, there have been quite a few changes around UNCW. One constant has been the leadership of former athletic director Jimmy Bass, who officially retired after 13 years on March 31

Filling Bass' shoes won't be easy, but new UNCW athletic director Michael Oblinger wants the Seahawks to soar higher than before. 

Oblinger, who has spent most of his career specializing in fundraising for athletics at LSU and the University of Connecticut, calls his new role a superstar position. 

"This is a calling for me," Oblinger said as he spoke to the StarNews in his first week on the job. "The more and more I learned about (UNCW), the more it was so obvious to me that this is something we wanted to be a part of." 

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Why UNCW?

Oblinger was far from unfamiliar with UNCW before he earned the job. With colleagues and friends working for the university long before this role was available, he was always enticed by the job. 

While he admits that UNCW took its time establishing what it wanted from its next AD after Bass announced his retirement last year, initial conversations with school officials assured him that he wanted the job.

New UNCW Chancellor Aswani K. Volety said Oblinger's ideas for enhancing the fan experience and increasing revenue in athletics made him the right fit.

UNCW Athletic Director Michael Oblinger meets with student athletes in his first week in his new role.

"We wanted to make sure that we are hiring a worthy successor for Jimmy Bass who did a fantastic job and can build on the very strong foundation that Jimmy Bass laid," Volety said. "I think his concrete ideas as well as his experience and fundraising are the ones that made me feel that (Oblinger) is a great addition to the Seahawk family."

Oblinger's contract runs until 2027 and his salary is set to start at $255,000 per year. Proximity to his parents, who now live in Charlotte, also made the move more enticing. 

'I got in this thing by accident' 

Born in Maine, Oblinger spent his adolescence bouncing around from state to state before his family settled in Chicago, where he graduated high school. 

While playing Division III basketball at Monmouth College in Illinois, Oblinger wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his career. The 6-foot-5 senior knew professional sports wasn't a viable option but still liked the idea of leading a team. 

As a political science major hoping to become a lawyer, he stumbled into the world of athletics. 

"I kind of got into this thing by accident," Oblinger said. "I had good guidance to put me on this path because athletics was always really part of who we were growing up as a kid, but at Monmouth College, there were only a handful of full-time people working in the athletics department, so really, I didn't see how this could become a career. "

Michael Oblinger talks with members of the women's golf team on Feb. 20, after his introductory press conference at UNCW.

As senior year was coming to a close, Oblinger learned about a graduate program at Western Illinois, which he barely made the cutoff for but ultimately found his path to the sports world in. 

Working at Ohio State as a development associate to finish his graduate program, he became fascinated with donor work and fundraising. 

"The light kind of kicked on with me (and I realized) if I want to influence a university, my dollars that I raise could directly do that," he said. "I jumped in with both feet and fell in love with development work."

After spending seven years fundraising at LSU, Oblinger carried that role to UConn, where he's spent the last six years and was promoted to deputy director of athletics-external relations.  

Oblinger is 40 years old and has two children, a daughter Quinn and son Miles with his wife, Liz. The family will join him in Wilmington in the coming months. 

What's the future look like for the Seahawks

The seventh athletic director in the university's history, Oblinger embarks on the role at a time when collegiate sports are undergoing a massive transformation. 

From transfer portals to Name, Image and Likeness rules, unprecedented evolution has sprouted. Oblinger thinks these new directions are well overdue but require careful planning to ensure sustainability and cohesiveness. 

In terms of NIL, Oblinger says that UNCW student-athletes should have every resource extended to help understand what marketing their name looks like. 

UNCW Athletic Director Michael Oblinger meets with student athletes in his first week in his new role.

"If a student-athlete is able to monetize their likeness, it's because of the work they've done in that space," Oblinger said. "I think the challenges that we see is there's still not a clear guardrails rules or regulation... I think there are some things put in place of what universities can and can't do, but it's still a little bit of the wild wild west."

Oblinger officially started at UNCW on April 3, and he'll take some time to learn before implementing any new procedures. 

Among many of his priorities is maintaining student-athletes' high academic status, opening resources to entrepreneurship information, and getting students and fans out to games.

"We're going to be very tastefully aggressive in the sales space, explaining why you should come out and support our student-athletes. Ultimately if you want people to come on your campus, you have to go meet them in your community. We're not just gonna sit behind our desk and wait for the phone to ring." 

While this is his first stint as an AD, Oblinger says his work over the years in the college sports industry has primed him for the new opportunity. 

"I'm fully committed to doing this job at a high level," Oblinger said. "I don't necessarily think this is a challenging job, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to challenges and achieving them and moving forward."