Jason MacBain was named the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Brand Advancement in May of 2024.
MacBain joins the Panthers following a six-year stint at UT Arlington where he served as the Associate Athletic Director for Communications for five years before being promoted to Associate Athletic Director for Brand Advancement at the start of the 2023 academic year.
“We are excited to add a talent like Jason to our executive staff, FIU Director of Athletics Scott Carr said. “Jason brings an outstanding track record of elevating brands and we are excited to have him here at FIU.”
During his time at UT Arlington, MacBain oversaw or helped facilitate all public-facing and revenue-generating entities: branding, licensing, ticketing, marketing and communications, while also serving as the department's liaison for Under Armour, LEARFIELD's Maverick Sports Properties and hotel reservations. In the role, MacBain was also responsible for all broadcasting initiatives (ESPN+) and delegated all strategic communications for UTA's 15 teams, including dissemination of all media, public relations and website efforts.
"I'm grateful to join the FIU Family and to help advance the Panthers' profile and brand throughout the 305, nationally and globally,” MacBain said. “I'd like to thank Scott Carr and the entire search committee for entrusting me with this role, and I'm thrilled to represent and aid in growing a top-ranked university. There are several exciting enhancements on the horizon for FIU Athletics, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to aid in showcasing those and making a profound impact on all current, former and future Panthers and supporters."
Additionally, MacBain helped pioneer UTA forays in Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for Maverick student-athletes and aided in donor stewardship through the department's primary fundraising arm of the Maverick Club. He also was on the search committee for new men's basketball head coach KT Turner, and served as a sport administrator for the men's basketball program.
During the 2024 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) basketball tournament, MacBain spearheaded a social media push that generated 1.2 million impressions across X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook leading to a 375 percent audience growth and a 232 percent increase in engagement.
That social content during the week aided in yielding an advertising equivalency of $1.7 million, and across TV, web, radio and print UTA men's basketball had a reach of 184 million people.
A member of the UT Arlington’s executive staff, MacBain spearheaded holistic enhancements during his 5-plus years with the Mavericks across social media, website and broadcasting. Additionally, he implemented significant integrations in revenue-generating outlets, including LEARFIELD sponsorship fulfillment, ticketing and licensing through the output of cutting-edge visual and informative content.
A key stakeholder in developing athletics-related initiatives through Populous as part of the University’s Master Plan – MacBain was also an integral member of the conference-affiliation committee which worked to transition UTA from the Sun Belt Conference to the Western Athletic Conference, effective July 1, 2022.
In the spring of 2022, MacBain completed oversight of the development, installation and execution of a new state-of-the-art production facility at Clay Gould Ballpark, allowing for in-house ESPN+ broadcasts to be streamed for the first time in UTA baseball and softball history.
MacBain launched a complete overhaul to the department’s social media strategy, highlighted by an increase in creative content, re-branding of handles and consistent messaging. Those improvements have prompted fiscal-year increases in followers across all team accounts and yielded millions of impressions, lending to an uptick in revenue opportunities.
Additional revenue opportunities were created when MacBain led the total re-design of UTAMavs.com in the summer of 2021 to improve navigability of the site for users, creating better revenue placements for partners and increasing content production.
MacBain was also an integral member of the conference-affiliation committee which worked to transition UTA from the Sun Belt Conference to the Western Athletic Conference in July of 2023.
In addition, MacBain, was on the hiring committee for hiring of UTA men’s basketball head coach KT Turner and also served as the sport administrator for the men’s basketball program.
Prior to his time at UTA, MacBain resided for five years (2013-18) as the Director of Athletics Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). Prior to FGCU, MacBain spent nearly a decade at St. Bonaventure University as an undergrad, graduate student and employee. After two years (2010-12) as an Assistant Sports Information Director at St. Bonaventure, MacBain (then 25) was promoted to lead the office in the spring of 2012, making him the youngest Division-I SID in the nation.
