Gloria Nevarez's near three-decade path to becoming one of three female FBS commissioners
In March, Nevada Sports Net will honor influential female coaches, athletes or administrators in Northern Nevada to celebrate Women's History Month. Today's feature is on Mountain West commissioner, Gloria Nevarez, who's been in intercollegiate athletics for almost three decades.
There's been one constant in the life of Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez's lately — change.
"Having been able to sit in the leadership chair, the West Coast Conference really helped prepare me for the Mountain West, although nothing can prepare you for the type of change that we've seen recently," said Nevarez, who had to remake the MW after it lost five members to the Pac-12. "I tell people I consider myself someone comfortable to change, a change agent. But even this change is pushing my outer limit of comfort."
The Santa Clara, Calif., native played basketball at the University of Massachusetts and earned a bachelor's degree in sports management while graduating cum laude. Nevarez received her Juris Doctorate from the University of California and realized while in law school she no longer wanted to practice law.
"I bumbled down to the athletic department and there was a single person working compliance for 27 sports, 950 athletes," Nevarez said. "Nowadays, modern compliance offices are like 8-10 people with law degrees. I said, 'Do you need help?' And he's, like, 'Yes, please.' So, I did an externship with the Cal athletic department and realized, 'Oh, this is this is what I want to do.'"
Nevarez started her career in athletic administration at San José State in 1998 where she was the first full-time director of compliance in school history. Her journey in collegiate athletics took her to Cal as a compliance officer, Oklahoma as a senior associate athletic director, the Pac-12 as a senior associate commissioner and two stints at the West Coast Conference, first working in compliance in the early 2000s and then as the conference's commissioner from 2018-22. Nevarez took over as the second MW commissioner on Jan. 1, 2023. She is one of three female conference commissioners at the FBS level, joining Judy MacLeod of Conference USA and Teresa Gould of the Pac-12.
"It certainly was nice that when I first joined the room that Judy McLeod and I had been friends for years, so she and I would caucus on the breaks and she'd bring me up to speed," Nevarez said. "So, it was nice to have someone else who's been in the room, but it's been really special to be able to work at this level, at the FBS level."
Opportunities for women in sports weren't as common when Nevarez set out on her career in college athletics as she was the first Latino commissioner at the Division I level, too. During Nevarez's time as commissioner at the WCC, the conference became the first D-I conference to adopt the “Russell Rule," which required all WCC schools to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the final candidate pool for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach and full-time assistant position. She was recently named the President of Women Leaders in Sports, an organization that helps women break into the sports industry with networking, job boards and conventions.
"There are so many more opportunities right now," Nevarez said. "We have so many more women in the ranks. My advice would be just keep going, do the job, do it well and there are many opportunities are out there."
You can watch the interview from NSN Tonight below.
MW commissioner Gloria Nevarez on new membership, Pac-12 legal battle and much more