Tom Odjakjian, who serves as the senior associate commissioner for broadcasting and digital content, is a longtime veteran of the American Athletic Conference’s senior staff, having joined the office from ESPN in 1995 as associate commissioner.
Odjakjian has oversight of all external conference content, including its digital content, and is The American’s primary liaison with the league’s television partners, managing those relationships on a daily basis.
Odjakjian has been the conference’s primary point person for a number of significant television agreements, including The American’s current partnerships with ESPN and CBS Sports that have given member institutions unprecedented exposure. Under the conference’s current agreement, all conference-controlled football and men’s basketball games will be televised, with nearly 90 percent of the football games and more than 90 percent of the men’s basketball games available on either national broadcast or national cable platforms.
Odjakjian also has direct involvement in the assembly of The American’s annual schedules in football and men’s and women’s basketball, in order to fulfill the network’s contractual obligations and maximize exposure for the conference while balancing institutional schedules.
Odjakjian served in various executive roles at ESPN from 1981-94, including as the director of college sports. He was responsible for negotiation, acquisition, scheduling and budget supervision for the network’s collegiate sports programming. Odjakjian was the architect behind the creation of ESPN’s basketball Championship Week and football Bowl Week and had a hand in the network’s NFL, NBA, NHL and Olympic sports programming.
Prior to joining ESPN, Odjakjian also served as associate commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Conference and assistant sports information director at Princeton University. While at ESPN, in 1994, he was named as The Most Influential Person in College Sports by College Sports Magazine and was tabbed as one of the four most influential people in college basketball by Sporting News in 1990.
Odjakjian is a 1976 graduate of Lafayette with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business. He played football and baseball as an undergraduate and was the recipient of George Wharton Pepper Prize, Lafayette’s most prestigious honor.