Senior Associate Athletics Director for Compliance | University of South Florida
Brendan Armitage has served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Compliance at the University of South Florida since September 2017, bringing two decades of experience in NCAA compliance, athletics operations, and departmental leadership. As a trusted member of Vice President for Athletics Michael Kelly’s Athletics Cabinet, he plays a key role in shaping the compliance strategy and crafting policies and procedures to support the greater athletic department’s strategic goals. He ensures that USF’s 20-sport varsity athletics program (expanding to 21 in 2025-26) remains aligned with NCAA, conference, and institutional regulations while fostering a culture of integrity and accountability.
At USF, Brendan oversees a five-member compliance team, managing all aspects of NCAA, AAC, and USF compliance, including monitoring, education, enforcement, academic eligibility, waivers, and legislative interpretations. His leadership ensures that coaches, student-athletes, and staff receive the guidance and support necessary to navigate complex regulations effectively.
In addition to his compliance leadership, Brendan plays a critical role as the sport administrator for men’s and women’s tennis and women’s sailing. In this capacity, he works closely with coaches and student-athletes to ensure their programs have the resources, strategic direction, and institutional support needed to compete at a high level. Brendan is actively involved in program development, budget oversight, scheduling, facility coordination, and student-athlete well-being initiatives, serving as an advocate and primary liaison between the programs and USF Athletics administration.
His involvement extends beyond operational oversight—he is a trusted advisor and problem-solver, helping coaching staffs navigate recruiting, compliance, performance strategy, and long-term planning. Brendan’s leadership fosters a championship-minded culture within these programs, emphasizing academic success, competitive excellence, and student-athlete experience. Under his guidance, USF’s tennis and sailing programs continue to grow and thrive, benefiting from his proactive support, strategic vision, and dedication to their long-term success.
Upon joining USF, Brendan designed and led the transformation of the Athletic Compliance Office (ACO), shifting from a bylaw-specific model to a sport liaison model. This innovative approach enabled ACO staff to develop expertise across all areas of compliance rather than working in isolated NCAA bylaw silos. The team-oriented structure positioned compliance staff as primary points of contact for each sport and specific department units within Athletics, enhancing service, efficiency, and collaboration. The restructuring also reinforced the ACO’s customer service-driven philosophy, ensuring that staff provide exceptional support not only to their assigned teams but also to key liaison units across the athletics department and campus.
The success of this sport liaison model—originally implemented by the ACO—has since been adopted by other departments within USF Athletics, fostering a culture of collaboration, customer service, and efficiency. This structural evolution reflects Vice President Michael Kelly’s vision of “building a model athletic department for modern times” and has been a welcomed enhancement throughout the department.
Brendan also plays a key role in shaping policy and decision-making at both the institutional and conference levels. He is an active member of the American Athletic Conference Academic Committee and Athletics Senior Staff, contributing to strategic discussions on governance, academic integrity, and department operations. Additionally, he serves on the USF Athletics Certification Team, the Athletic Aid Committee, and the Sport Administrator Committee, where he provides expertise on eligibility-related matters, financial aid policies, and sport administration strategies, helping to align USF’s compliance efforts with broader athletic and academic objectives.
As a member of USF’s Leadership Cabinet for the Office of Compliance and Ethics (OCE), Brendan extends his impact beyond athletics. While he primarily serves the Athletics Department, student-athletes, and athletics constituents, he also maintains a direct reporting line to Dr. Caroline Fultz-Carver, Chief Compliance Officer, advising and assisting OCE on university-wide, state, and federal compliance matters to ensure USF remains aligned with evolving regulatory standards.
A firm believer in proactive education as the foundation of compliance success, Brendan and his team provide comprehensive compliance education not only to USF coaches, staff, and student-athletes but also to university leadership, campus partners, and the USF Board of Trustees, reinforcing a culture of integrity and accountability. He is an active member of the Academics and Campus Environment Advisory Council (ACEAC) and a 17-year member of the National Association of Athletics Compliance (NAAC). His expertise is frequently sought for NAAC convention panels, where he shares valuable insights on NCAA governance, department compliance initiatives, and navigating the evolving compliance landscape for elite student-athletes. Additionally, Brendan has provided mentorship and guidance to aspiring sport administrators by assisting with the Sport Administrators Academy, offering insight and professional development opportunities to those seeking careers in sport administration.
Previous Athletic Administration Experience
Before joining USF, Brendan developed broad expertise in NCAA compliance, athletics administration, and event management through roles at three Power Five FBS institutions—Indiana (Big Ten), Kansas State (Big 12), and Maryland (ACC)—as well as two Group of Five institutions—UCF (Conference USA/Big East) and USF (AAC). Additionally, his tenure at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) provided valuable insight into conference governance, legislative processes, and multi-institution oversight, further expanding his strategic approach to compliance administration, policy development, and risk management.
Brendan’s career progression includes roles at Maryland (2005-07), the Western Athletic Conference (2007-08), Kansas State (2008-12), UCF (2012-13), and Indiana (2013-17), each providing a unique perspective on compliance operations at both the institutional and conference levels.
At Maryland (2005-07), Brendan served as a Compliance Assistant and Event Operations Coordinator, balancing responsibilities in both compliance and event management. In compliance, he worked directly under now Cincinnati Athletics Director, John Cunningham, and current Executive Deputy AD/COO at LSU, Keli Zinn, gaining invaluable experience in compliance monitoring, enforcement, and legislative interpretations. Simultaneously, he worked within the event management team under current North Florida Athletics Director, Nick Morrow, where he contributed to championship operations, game-day logistics, and facility coordination. This unique combination of responsibilities gave him a multi-faceted understanding of athletic department operations that continues to shape his leadership approach today.
At the Western Athletic Conference (2007-08), Brendan served as a Compliance and Championships Assistant, where he gained conference-level compliance experience while also contributing to championship event operations and governance initiatives. His responsibilities included providing compliance interpretations, education, and oversight on NCAA and WAC policies for multiple member institutions. Additionally, he oversaw and administered the conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) program, fostering student-athlete engagement and leadership development across the WAC.
During his tenure, the conference achieved national prominence with back-to-back BCS Bowl appearances, as Boise State competed in the Fiesta Bowl, followed by Hawai'i representing the WAC in the Sugar Bowl. This experience allowed Brendan to gain valuable insight into the intersection of compliance, governance, and championship event management at the conference level, further shaping his approach to athletics administration and student-athlete engagement.
At Kansas State (2008-12), Brendan was promoted to Compliance Coordinator, where his compliance knowledge expanded exponentially under the guidance of now Executive Associate Athletics Director for Internal Operations at Texas A&M, Jamie Vaughn, who mentored him into the administrator he is today. Kansas State provided him the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of compliance, giving him a well-rounded skill set that allowed him to develop a comprehensive understanding of NCAA rules, institutional policy application, and compliance education. Through this experience, he was able to oversee multiple compliance areas simultaneously, preparing him for leadership roles in compliance administration.
After gaining a holistic compliance foundation at Kansas State, Brendan transitioned to UCF (2012-13), where he served as the Director of Compliance and played a key role in overseeing compliance operations within a rapidly evolving athletic department.
Brendan then moved to Indiana (2013-17), also serving as Director of Compliance, where he refined his approach to compliance structure and service delivery. While his primary duties at Indiana were focused on specific NCAA bylaws rather than the full manual, he was afforded the opportunity to work directly with sport programs as a compliance point of contact. He was the liaison for several sports, including women’s water polo, baseball, football, men’s and women’s soccer, track and field, and cross country, attending weekly meetings with coaching staffs and ensuring compliance was seamlessly integrated into their day-to-day operations. His role as the primary compliance liaison for Football provided him with direct experience in high-profile program oversight, reinforcing his ability to balance compliance enforcement with a customer-service approach.
His experiences at Kansas State and Indiana played a pivotal role in shaping his compliance philosophy, solidifying the foundation for the sport liaison model that he later implemented at USF.
These diverse experiences, spanning institutional and conference settings, shaped Brendan’s strategic mindset and leadership approach, ultimately preparing him for his current role at USF, where he has transformed compliance operations into an efficient, sport-focused, and customer-service-driven model.
Brendan earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida Southern College and pursued graduate studies at Indiana University. He currently resides in Apollo Beach and outside of his professional responsibilities, he has a passion for spending as much quality time as possible with his daughter, Braelyn.
