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MAAC COMMISSIONER

TRAVIS TELLITOCCI MAAC Commissioner

Travis Tellitocci (pronounced Tella-toss-see) was named MAAC Commissioner in February of 2023 and his term commenced in May 2023. Tellitocci becomes just the fourth commissioner in the history of the MAAC. Since taking the helm, Tellitocci has overseen significant milestones for the Conference. Under his leadership, the MAAC announced the addition of Merrimack College and Sacred Heart University as full member institutions for the 2024-25 academic year, expanding the Conference to an all-time high of 13 members. As part of his efforts to position the MAAC for sustained success, the Conference completed a comprehensive strategic plan shaped by broad involvement across its member institutions. The process engaged approximately 3,500 stakeholders, including presidents, athletics administrators, student-athletes, faculty, alumni, and donors, through one-on-one conversations, focus groups, and a public survey. This collaborative effort ensured that the plan reflected the collective vision and priorities of the MAAC community.

A major highlight of Tellitocci’s tenure has been the MAAC’s multiyear extension of its media rights agreement with ESPN, further increasing exposure for student-athletes from MAAC member institutions across all of ESPN’s platforms. The agreement ensures that select regular season men’s and women’s basketball games and Olympic sport contests will be featured on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNU, while more than 500 MAAC events will stream annually on ESPN+ and the ESPN App. The extension also marks the return of the MAAC Men’s Basketball Championship game to a primetime national television window on ESPN or ESPN2 on Tuesday of Champ Week, while the MAAC Women’s Basketball Championship will now be a standalone event on Monday. The Conference has also seen historic success in competition. Fairfield women’s basketball earned a spot in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 poll, ranking No. 25 nationally, marking the first time a MAAC team has been ranked in over a decade. For the first time in conference history, the MAAC sent two teams to the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship, with Niagara earning the automatic qualifier and Fairfield securing the league’s first-ever at-large bid in 2024. Fairfield concluded the 2024 season ranked #23 in the ILWomen/IWLCA National Poll. Tellitocci joined the MAAC from the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), where he served as the Assistant Commissioner for Football, Basketball and Officiating for more than six years. Beyond Tellitocci’s role as Assistant Commissioner, while at the OVC, he also was the tournament director for the men’s and women’s basketball championships and the baseball championship. He also served as the tournament manager for the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament First and Second Round games at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to his work for the OVC, he also served on the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Competition Committee. Tellitocci brings to the MAAC a breadth of experience that spans professional sports, college athletics, and conference leadership. Early in his career, Tellitocci worked for the New York Mets as the Associate Producer for Scoreboard and Entertainment, before transitioning into college athletics. His appointment as MAAC Commissioner is a homecoming for Tellitocci. Prior to joining the OVC, he served as the Deputy Athletics Director at MAAC member Marist University. While at Marist, he worked with all 23 Division I sports of the college and was responsible for the oversight of the athletics department’s business operations, marketing, media relations, broadcasting, licensing, and ticketing. Tellitocci originally joined the Marist staff as Assistant Athletics Director for External Affairs in 2006, and held a number of positions with growing responsibilities before being named Marist’s Deputy Athletics Director. Tellitocci earned his bachelor’s degree in communication with a minor in writing from Marist in 2004. He completed his master’s degree in integrated marketing and communication at Marist in 2014. A Benwood, West Virginia, native, Tellitocci and his wife, Bobbi Sue, are the parents of two sons, Tyler and Hudson and reside in New Jersey.

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