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College athletics is undergoing profound and significant changes, but that hasn’t put a damper on the vision Dr. Brandon Martin has for Kansas City Roos athletics.
“I really don't see challenges; I see opportunities,” Martin, who has served as UMKC’s vice chancellor and director of athletics since December 2018, said. “We are Kansas City's only (NCAA) Division I team, so if we can build a fence around the Kansas City metro and get our alumni more engaged, if we can get more people to understand what we offer in terms of the fan experience, if we can get more narratives and more stories out about the great work that our student-athletes are doing, I have no doubt that we're going to be successful.”
Roos athletics launched in 1969 at the NAIA level before hopping to the D-I ranks in 1986, but they’re still fighting for relevance in Kansas City’s crowded sports scene.
“Kansas City is a unique place,” Martin said. “You can make Kansas City whatever you want it to be. We are sitting on acres of diamonds here, especially with athletics. If a lot of other mid-major universities can advance to a premier level, why can't we do the same thing?”
Kansas City sponsors 12 athletic programs — men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, soccer, and track and field; men’s golf, softball, women’s tennis, and volleyball.
Martin mentioned Wichita State, Gonzaga, Butler, Marquette and Dayton — all programs that have enjoyed men’s basketball success in the NCAA Tournament — as aspirational mid-majors for Kansas City.
“Some of those are private schools, so the university profile is different, but that's the type of success we want to have,” Martin said. “If you look at the University of Dayton, if you can be a top-20 basketball program at the University of Dayton, we surely can do it here in Kansas City.”
Roos men’s basketball was picked to win the Summit League before the season, exactly the kind of momentum Martin seeks to build and capitalize on, but they’ve failed to live up to those expectations.
Kansas City’s men’s soccer team overachieved, though — winning the Summit League to qualify for the NCAA tourney and battling into the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
“Soccer is a huge sport here in Kansas City,” Roos men’s soccer coach Ryan Pore, a 2005 Kansas City Wizards draft pick, said. “I always thought it was a program that could do really, really well in men's soccer — which, at the college level, only has 200 programs, so there's not a ton of teams in the Midwest. I targeted this as an opportunity to take and build a program that we could compete at the national level.”
Still, the Roos face headwinds in a college landscape dominated by NIL payments, the transfer portal and, soon, court-imposed revenue sharing. Martin’s department can’t keep up financially with Power 4 programs, which siphon off the top talent with big paydays that Kansas City’s programs simply can’t match.
“We are in a landscape where we have more questions than answers,” he said. “For me, as the leader of our athletics department, it's important that I adopt a form of adaptive leadership. That means that we have to adjust to the transfer portal, we have to adjust to NIL, we have to adjust to this new House settlement that is coming forth.”
It’s daunting, but Martin remains bullish on the future of Kansas City Roos athletics during the next five to 10 years.
“I see advancement to being a premier mid-major athletic department that rivals some of the top-tier mid-major departments nationally,” Martin said. “I see us advancing to the NCAA tournament. I see us really fitting into Kansas City and offering a value proposition that's strong in the community. I see us having a new arena, a new place to play for basketball and for our volleyball programs. I see a strong trajectory of advancement for our student-athletes, for our coaches, but, most importantly, for the university in Kansas City.”
Athletics is among a school’s greatest marketing tools and easiest paths to alumni engagement, so Martin’s job is important to the Roos’ wider mission as a university.
“I've got total trust in ‘Doc,’” Pore said. “I know that he's in it for the right reason. He's a people's person. He's here to not only help us navigate those challenges but make sure that we're being a good mentor and being a good coach for his student-athletes that he looks after. We're very fortunate to have his leadership here.”
It’s not easy, but Martin — a former basketball player at the University of Southern California who spent time in the athletic departments at USC, Oklahoma and California State-Northridge, where he served as AD before coming to Kansas City — is focused on the mission to make the Roos Kansas City’s college team.
“Our mantra here is intentional excellence and it's a daily focus, it's a daily grind, it's a daily commitment to everything that we want to do,” Martin said.
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