Xavier University Athletics
Staff Directory
- Title:
- Vice President for Institutional Strategy and Director of Athletics
- Email:
- Phone:
- 513.745.3417
Greg Christopher took on an expanded set of responsibilities in 2023, assuming the role of Xavier University’s Vice President for Institutional Strategy and Director of Athletics after five years as Vice President for Administration and Director of Athletics. In this new role, Christopher is focused on Xavier’s positioning, as XU continues on its path of institutional and strategic advancement. He will continue to serve on the president's leadership cabinet and oversee Intercollegiate Athletics.
The NCAA Board of Governors appointed Christopher to the Constitution Committee in 2021, which led to his current work on the Transformation Committee.
Christopher, who has served as Director of Athletics since May of 2013, took over as AD as Xavier was preparing for its first season in the BIG EAST Conference. He oversees Xavier’s 19 intercollegiate athletic programs and 300 student-athletes. Under his guidance, Xavier Athletics has won 29 BIG EAST Conference team titles, including tournament and regular season championships, in XU's first 12 years in the conference. Following the 2017-18 season, Christopher was named the Division I-AAA Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year.
Christopher received the 2020 Mike Cleary Organizational Leadership Award. The award is named after former NACDA Executive Director, Mike Cleary, and is given to an organizational leader (i.e., athletics director, general counsel, provost, president, commissioner, NCAA executive) who has demonstrated NCAA compliance leadership and a strong commitment to fostering a culture of compliance to NCAA rules within their organization.
Christopher, who spent the previous six-and-a-half years as the Director of Athletics at Bowling Green State University, is the 11th athletic director in Xavier history. Christopher oversaw 18 athletic programs with over 400 student-athletes at BGSU, which is a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and Western College Hockey Association (WCHA).
Christopher went to Bowling Green from Purdue University, where he worked from 1997-2006 as Associate A.D. for External Relations and John Purdue Club Director. He was accountable for external and revenue-related areas at Purdue.
Christopher served as Executive Director for the Society of Professional Journalists in Greencastle, Ind., from 1994 to 1997 after joining the organization in 1991 as its Marketing and Development Director. Prior to working with SPJ, Christopher worked with Eure Communications and WCHV/WWWV in Charlottesville, Va., from 1988-90. In that capacity, he managed and sold station promotions, including partnerships with the athletics program at the University of Virginia. He also worked with the page program at NBC in New York in 1988 where he served as a research analyst.
Christopher earned a bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from nearby Miami University in 1988 and earned his MBA from Miami in 1991. A former linebacker, he played football for one season before his career was cut short due to injury. While at Miami, Christopher was also involved as a television and radio color commentator for football and play-by-play voice for hockey.
Christopher, a member of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions since 2012, took over as chair of the COI in 2017. Christopher also served as chair of the BIG EAST's Long-Range Planning Committee, the working group that put together the league's first strategic plan. While at Bowling Green, Christopher chaired the Mid-American Conference's Athletic Directors' Council. He completed a four-year term on the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship Committee in 2012, and served as chairman of the committee in his final year.
A West Lafayette, Ind. native, Christopher is married to the former Tina Smith of Leetonia, Ohio. Tina taught high school English at St. Ursula Academy in Toledo. Also a 1988 graduate of Miami, Tina received her bachelor's degree in Education and earned her Master's in Guidance and Counseling in 1995 from Butler University. Greg and Tina have a son, Zachary, and two daughters, Megan and Allison.
