Jason MacBain is in his sixth year with UT Arlington. He is currently in his first year as UTA's Associate AD for Brand Advancement after serving as Associate AD for Communications from 2018-23.
In his current role with the Mavericks, MacBain manages UTA’s identity through oversight of branding, licensing and all creative services – graphics, video and social media – while remaining the day-to-day communications lead and primary contact for the men’s basketball and men’s golf teams. MacBain also serves as the department’s liaison for Under Armour, hotel contracts through LEARFIELD’s Maverick Sports Properties, all broadcasting initiatives (ESPN+) and delegates strategic communications for UTA’s 15 teams, including dissemination of all public relations and website efforts.
MacBain, who was on the hiring committee for first-year UTA men’s basketball head coach KT Turner, is also the sport administrator for the men’s basketball program.
Additionally, MacBain helped pioneer UTA forays – and continues to grow – Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for Maverick student-athletes, and aids in donor stewardship and facilitation through the department’s primary fundraising arm of the Maverick Club.
A member of the department’s executive staff (Impact Team), MacBain has spearheaded holistic enhancements in his 5+ years with the Mavs across social media, website and broadcasting. Additionally, he has implemented significant integrations in revenue-generating outlets, including LEARFIELD sponsorship fulfillment, ticketing and licensing through the output of cutting-edge visual and informative content.
A key stakeholder in developing athletics-related initiatives through Populous as part of the University’s Master Plan – #MavFuture: Together Arlington, Forever Arlington – MacBain was also an integral member of the conference-affiliation committee which worked to transition UTA from the Sun Belt Conference to the Western Athletic Conference, effective July 1, 2022.
In the spring of 2022, MacBain completed oversight of the development, installation and execution of a new state-of-the-art production facility at Clay Gould Ballpark, allowing for in-house ESPN+ broadcasts to be streamed for the first time in UTA baseball and softball history.
MacBain launched a complete overhaul to the department’s social media strategy, highlighted by an increase in creative content, re-branding of handles and consistent messaging. Those improvements have prompted fiscal-year increases in followers across all team accounts and yielded millions of impressions, lending to an uptick in revenue opportunities.
Additional revenue opportunities were created when MacBain led the total re-design of UTAMavs.com in the summer of 2021 to improve navigability of the site for users, creating better revenue placements for partners and increasing content production.
Prior to his time at UTA, MacBain spent five years as the Director of Athletics Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). With the Eagles, he guided the office and served as the primary contact for three sports, including the men’s basketball program – the only No. 15 seed to advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
In his five years working with the men's basketball program, MacBain promoted five regular season or tournament conference championships. The program won at least 21 games and made five postseason appearances as well, including two trips to the NIT and NCAA Tournament and a record-setting victory in March Madness.
MacBain grew all facets of the department’s communication, most notably related to video and website to cater to the ever-expanding visual generation. He was responsible for hiring and assembling a crew for a new ESPN3 (now also ESPN+) initiative beginning in the 2013-14 academic year, allowing all home men’s and women’s basketball games – in addition to select other events – to be streamed online via ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
During the summer of 2014, MacBain led a complete re-design of FGCUAthletics.com and also oversaw the hire of FGCU’s first Coordinator of Video Operations to grow all areas of the department’s visual communication.
In addition to the aforementioned roles, MacBain was also instrumental in helping grow FGCU’s much-needed external revenues by working in conjunction with the rest of the external relations team. In his final year with FGCU in 2017, the department set a record $5.7 million in net revenue – a 35-percent increase in total revenue over a three-year span, from just over $4 million in 2014.
MacBain came to FGCU after nearly a decade at St. Bonaventure University as an undergrad and graduate student and employee. After two years as an Assistant Sports Information Director at St. Bonaventure, MacBain (then 25) was promoted to lead the office in the spring of 2012, making him the youngest Division-I SID in the nation.
The promotion came on the heels of a 2011-12 season in which he led all communication and marketing strategies for the women’s basketball team, which went 31-4, was undefeated in the Atlantic 10 Conference regular season, ranked as high as No. 16 in the nation and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. MacBain also spearheaded a campaign which resulted in Jim Crowley being named ESPN.com’s National Coach of the Year.
That same year, MacBain assisted with the communication efforts for the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, which won the 2012 A-10 Championship. He also aided in the national promotion of 2012 Associated Press All-American Honorable Mention Andrew Nicholson, who was selected with the No. 19 overall pick in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic.
Beyond the day-to-day duties of the traditional athletics communication role, MacBain’s office at St. Bonaventure served as the central hub of the external relations unit, which increased the athletic department’s overall revenue in the 2012 fiscal year by roughly 20 percent from the previous year.
In the social media landscape, MacBain curated social media recaps for men’s and women’s basketball games which generated an influx of fan interaction and were voted by DigitalHoopsBlast.com as the best social media idea in the Atlantic 10 Conference. He also created and implemented initiatives which resulted in a nearly 500-percent increase in St. Bonaventure’s Twitter followers over a two-year span, and employed a social media strategy to develop a consistent and cohesive brand message.
Additionally, MacBain covered the 2012 NBA Draft, the 2012 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement and the 2012 State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championship. He has forged relationship with numerous national media members, earning spots in ESPN.com, USA Today, the New York Post, Yahoo! Sports and Time magazine, among others.
MacBain graduated from St. Bonaventure in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and a History minor. He earned a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from St. Bonaventure in 2010.
As an undergraduate, he was editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, The Bona Venture, in 2007, and also served as manager of the Bonnies’ baseball team. As a graduate student, he spent two summers at the prestigious University of Oxford, where he served as a junior dean and completed a marketing plan for a London-based company.
A native of Hamilton, N.Y., MacBain resides in Arlington, Texas, with his wife, Kailey, and dogs, Tucker and Fowler.
