Hall of Fame
Odjakjian worked for 50 years in college athletics and sports television, last serving as the Senior Associate Commissioner for Broadcasting and Digital Content at the American Athletic Conference from 2013 until his retirement in early October 2022. Prior to that, Odjakjian was an associate commissioner with the Big East Conference from 1995 to 2013, managing the relationships with CBS and ESPN, and serving as the Tournament Director at Madison Square Garden.
Prior to joining the Big East Conference, Odjakjian worked in various roles at ESPN from 1981 to 1994, including as its director of college sports when he was responsible for negotiation, acquisition, scheduling and budget supervision for the network's collegiate sports programming. He was behind the creation of ESPN's basketball Championship Week and football Bowl Week. In his original post at ESPN, he was responsible for deciding the 24-hour daily schedule of events for all sports, including in the network's NFL, NBA, NHL and Olympic sports programming.
Prior to joining ESPN, Odjakjian also served as associate commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Conference and assistant sports information director at Princeton University. While at ESPN, in 1994, he was named "The Most Influential Person in College Sports" by College Sports Magazine and was tabbed as one of the four most influential people in college basketball by Sporting News in 1990. Odjakjian was the recipient of the 2019 Sports Video Group College Pioneer Award.
Odjakjian, who graduated from Lafayette with a degree in Economics and Business, is currently the president of the Class of 1976. He was a member of the freshman football and baseball teams, and like Fente and Moyer, he was a recipient of the Pepper Prize. He received the College's Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 1991. In his time on College Hill, he worked on-air at WJRH and was the sports editor of The Lafayette while also working for WEST-AM radio and The Easton Express. He currently resides in Marstons Mills, Mass., on Cape Cod.
