KC Smurthwaite is a consultant for the athletics administrator, specializing in revenue generation, licenses, marketing and higher education. He has almost two decades of experience in college athletics and the sports and entertainment industry. Smurthwaite is a fractional employee of several sports departments across the country. He also teaches sport management and journalism as a auxiliary teacher. Follow him Twitter or connect to Liendin. Smurthwaite can also be contacted at kc@athleticsadmin.com.
Florence, Alabama – Somewhere in the Alabama benches – in particular Florence – something extraordinary takes shape. Not only in concrete and steel (although it happens too), but in culture and momentum. Championship banners are lifted earlier than anyone in a school, less than a decade, was a power of division II.
If you thought this story was about the crimson tide, you are on the wrong page. But continue to read – it is time to enter the den at the University of North Alabama, where a division I identity of championship caliber is under construction in brick, victory by person and person per person.
“There is no more significant growth in the country at the level of the public or regional FCS than what is happening in northern Alabama at the moment”, director of athletics of Una Dr Josh Looney said. “And growth is not only something that we say – it’s visible. We are establishing records on campus, in class, in competition and in our community.”
Looney, who arrived at UNA in 2021 after judgments in professional sports, the National Office of the NCAA and as a sports director in two other institutions, guided the Lions through their most pivotal chapter: complete membership in division I. Under its direction, the department has already completed what many programs are waiting for a decade or more to win – to win attendance. And start on new installations.
“People are still talking about surviving the four -year transition (towards division I),” said Looney. “But the following four years after that – it is a critical window where your trajectory is set. And we made the decision early that we wanted to prosper there. There was no time to get this sigh of relief when the transition ended; it was already time.”
This last academic and athletic year, una secure his first Jesse C. Fletcher Trophy, awarded to the Men’s Male Male Sports Department of the Asun – only a massive moment three years after the eligibility of DI. The Lions won it with high finishes and record seasons in basketball, tennis, golf, cross-country and baseball.
“To achieve this, in just our third year of members of division I, which represents another first,” said Looney. “We are not only continuing the trophies. We are building lasting programs, and it starts with people.”
Looney highlights five fundamental talents whom he seeks in coaches and staff: positivity, altruism, resilience, decisions and a refusal to accept the status quo. This emphasis has a methodology behind it, because Looney is associated with a company called Humanene Ventures on all chief coaching searches to use a talented and selection tool that helps constitute very efficient teams aligned on the objectives and culture of the organization of the UNA.
“We are emphasizing the celebration of the first,” said Looney. “It could be the first time that we have reached a competitive step, a new GPA record or an important new step – really all that is measurable.
This state of mind has been deeply rooted since the arrival of Looney, thanks in part to a career which includes successful stops at the Missouri Western and transforming underperformant programs into winners. Looney teams rewritten academic files, increased the basics of donors and transformed obsolete installations.
Ring a bell?
All these results that take place now in Una.
“We have already built something special and we see the same ingredients here in North Alabama,” he said. “What makes it different now is the alignment. From the management of our president (Dr Ken Kitts) to the UNA Foundation to our community partners – everyone shoots in the same direction. It is rare.”
Nothing shows the momentum more than the horizon itself.
Construction is underway on $ 65 million Independent stadium of the bankThe very first football center on the university campus. Located to be opened in 2026-2027, the stadium will be the largest project to build the history of the UNA and a multi-use place capable of organizing courses, concerts and generating new sources of income to which the university has never had access before.
“It’s more than just a football stadium,” said Looney. “This is the kind of project that changes what is possible – for athletics, for university as a whole and for entertainment opportunities in our entire region.”
It is not the only construction game in town. A brand new baseball stadium appeared next to it – part of a transformation once in generation of the UNA sports infrastructure. And although the new seats were not ready for the 2025 season, fans have always found a way to support their lions.
“There is a church adjacent to the baseball field overlooking the left wall – College View Church of Christ”, AAA Assistant Ad for Communications Mike Ezekiel said. “People brought garden chairs and wrapped the parking lot. It has become the Violet Chair.
And this first match? Over 300 people came out. It just shows the level of membership here. “”
Ezekiel, a graduate of the UNA, radiated with pride by talking about the quantity of things that changed – and passion has remained.
“When I was here as a student, I have never really experienced a closed window sale inside our gymnasium,” he said. “Now? Our tournament matches have sold in a few minutes. People ask me every day the subscriptions of the basketball season. People want to know how to watch tennis. It’s just football – we are a school of everything.”
In 2025, UNA ranked among the first three present in six of her seven spectator sports during the Asun or United Athletic conference. The University led the ASUN in the average attendance of women’s football, male basketball and softball – a sign that Florence is not only looking at, it appears.
This growing support base is not an accident. The emphasis put by Looney on the external strategy – an orientation which it could adopt thanks to the solid internal foundation left by its predecessor, Mark Linder – triggered a culture of engagement.
“One of the best parts of the arrival during the fourth year of the D1 transition is that so much compliance and internal operations were already in great shape,” said Looney. “This allowed us to go at full speed on the construction of the external side – fundraising, commitment of fans, partnerships.”
The results were transformational. The success of UNA fund collection includes major gifts related to athletics and academics, thanks to a rare level of collaboration with the university’s progress team.
“I say that often, but the alignment here is real,” said Looney. “Our progress VP (Kevin Haslam) is a former coach and advertising. Our development staff work side by side with the campus. We have approached donors to support athletics and we left with a gift for the school of activity – and also the vice versa. We do not care where they choose to support, as long as they are linked to UNA.”
So what is the next step?
Northern Alabama continues to position itself for strategic growth, even if the national landscape moves with Nile, the colony of the house and the conference structures constantly evolving.
“All our sporting budget is lower than the ceiling of $ 20.5 million on the part of the regime which is a widespread subject in media coverage surrounding the schools of the Conference of Power, so we must be intelligent and creative while una between another new era,” said Looney. “But we are also agile. We have opted for the new model and write our own manual. It is exciting to create something new and do it with an outsider mentality.”
Whether it is installation projects, increasing attendance, conference titles or new fund collection stages, northern athletics in Alabama does not expect the arrival of the future – it builds it in the moment.
“It’s a generational moment for us,” said Looney. “And the best part? We just start.”