Ohio Wesleyan Graduate Jeff Long is Focused on Football
Ohio Wesleyan University graduate Jeff Long, vice chancellor and director of athletics for the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, visited campus in April 2013 to discuss the “Role of Ethics in Leadership and Decision Making.” (Photo by Mark Schmitter ’12)
DELAWARE, Ohio – As the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision season winds down, interest in the upcoming four-team playoff for the FBS national championship is heating up.
Jeff Long, Ohio Wesleyan University Class of 1982, is the chair of the selection committee for the playoff. Long, also the vice chancellor and director of athletics at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, played football and baseball at Ohio Wesleyan and went on to coaching and administrative positions at nine FBS institutions in seven FBS conferences.
Long previously told the Ohio Wesleyan Magazine that his philosophy with the Razorbacks is based on his days as a Battling Bishop. “My experiences at OWU had a tremendous influence on what I’m trying to do now at Arkansas,” he said. “Those years and those relationships really provided the foundation for who I am now and what we’re trying to build here.”
Long and his role on the playoff selection committee were profiled recently in an article on BleacherReport.com. In the piece, he tells writer Adam Kramer that chairing the committee has changed the way he approaches football.
“I am definitely watching football differently than I have in the past and really looking at it more back to my coaching days early in my career where I was looking for how teams were playing, attacking defenses and preparing for offenses,” Long said. “I slipped into being more of a fan over 20 years of not having to coach, so that’s come back out in me watching it more like a coach.”
Read the complete BleacherReport.com article, “College Football Playoff Chairman Jeff Long Embraces His Role as Twitter Pinata.” Learn more about Ohio Wesleyan athletics at www.battlingbishops.com.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers 86 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Ohio Wesleyan combines a challenging, internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities to connect classroom theory with real-world experience. OWU’s 1,750 students represent 46 U.S. states and territories and 43 countries. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.