There was a different kind of energy moving through Whitman last week, the kind that only shows up when a campus knows it is about to make history. In the days ahead, Syracuse University would formally install J. Michael Haynie as its 13th Chancellor and President, a moment made even sweeter for Whitman because Haynie built much of his own Syracuse story inside these walls. So, when Flaum Grand Hall filled with students, alumni and staff just ahead of that milestone, it felt like the opening kickoff of inauguration weekend itself.

That excitement had a name: “Game Changers: A Conversation with Mike Levine.” The Whitman School of Management teamed up with the David B. Falk College of Sport, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Syracuse University Athletics to bring in Mike Levine, managing director and co-head of CAA Sports, for an afternoon that was part masterclass, part networking and part pep rally. Levine was also joined by his CAA colleague, Kevin Belbey ’13 (NEW), G’16 (NEW), L’16 (LAW), a three-time Syracuse alumnus and founder of Boeheim’s Army, on stage for a surprise cameo that had the room buzzing all over again.

The crowd heard early on that sports business doesn’t live inside one classroom or one school, it lives at the intersection of media, marketing, psychology, law and data—exactly why four communities came together to build this event. What followed was exactly the kind of real-talk, real-stakes conversation students came for. Here are a few takeaways from that conversation worth carrying into the semester, and the seasons ahead.

Relationships are the Real Scoreboard

If there was one message Levine and Belbey repeated more than any other, it was this: talent gets you in the room, but relationships keep you in the game. Levine traces it all back to his Cornell lacrosse experience, where a coach put him to work selling programs for a few cents’ commission at the football games. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was quietly laying the groundwork for a career, one that would eventually open the door to an internship at CBS Sports and, with it, the realization that a job could feel like something worth waking up for every single day. None of it, he was quick to admit, happens without someone deciding, somewhere along the way, to take a chance on you first. 

Levine made a bold statement, “I don’t call it networking, I call it living,” he told the room, framing every interaction, not just the formal ones, as an investment in a relationship that might matter years down the road. He went a step further, saying that if he could do college again, he would triple the amount of networking he did. It’s the same instinct behind a simple phrase that guides CAA internally: take care of each other, and good things happen. That mindset, Levine said, is the real reason CAA Sports grew into a global operation with roughly 1,400 employees across 19 different business verticals.

Hunger and Authenticity Set Applicants Apart

What separates a good hire from a great one? For Levine, it isn’t about credentials alone. It’s hunger, enthusiasm and authenticity. These qualities, he says, cannot be faked in an interview and are the ones he actively looks for. He told students that if they can speak with real passion about something they learned in a single class, even one that seems unrelated to sports, that fire will register far more than a polished, cookie-cutter answer ever could.

Belbey echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that strong relationships require nurturing. As he put it, “the fortune is in the follow-up,” a reminder that staying in touch, reaching back out and being persistent can turn an initial connection into a lasting relationship. It is that commitment to following up, both agents agreed, that keeps people picking up the phone for each other years after the first meeting.

Mike Levine chatting with students after the conversation

The Next Big Play: Women’s Sports, Global Sports and the Creator Economy

When a student asked Levine where the next big opportunity is, he didn’t hesitate: women’s sports! He pointed to the surge in attendance and investment around women’s sports, including a record-setting crowd of 92,000 fans at the Nebraska-Omaha D1 women’s college volleyball match, as proof this is not a passing moment. “That’s real,” he told the room, “and that’s really important and really special.”

He and Belbey are watching global sports just as closely. Soccer, this year’s World Cup and the rapid growth of Formula One in the United States are all signs, they said, of where audience appetite is heading, with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics not far behind. And they lit up talking about the creator economy, the space where his clients now include not just athletes but online creators with tens of millions of followers who have never played a professional sport. Today’s young audiences, Levine explained, build their entertainment habits around platforms like TikTok and Instagram rather than movie theaters, and CAA has leaned all the way into that shift. That trend lines up directly with Syracuse’s own Center for the Creator Economy, a cross-campus initiative Levine praised as ahead of the curve nationally, and a reminder that Whitman students are already being trained for where the industry is heading, not just where it has been.

 
Your Career Path Has No Set Playbook

The most reassuring moment of the afternoon came when a graduating senior asked for job search advice. Levine didn’t have a job lined up before his own graduation and didn’t start his first one until that following September. It’s a good reminder, especially at a school that places 98.1% of graduates into jobs within 180 days of graduating, that even the paths that look uncertain in the moment can lead somewhere amazing. Levine’s advice was simply to be patient and trust the process. “There’s going to be trains coming and going at every station for the rest of your life,” Levine told the room, describing career decisions as an ongoing series of choices about which trains to catch, which to let pass and where to go next.

When the formal Q&A wrapped, Interim Dean McKelvie made sure everyone understood what came next was not a bonus, it was the whole point. Levine, Belbey and dozens of students moved right into a networking reception in Flaum Grand Hall. After an hour spent talking about the power of relationships, the room got to build a few of its own on the spot.

That energy carried into inauguration weekend. Campus was covered in orange for Chancellor Haynie’s investiture, a fitting bookend to an afternoon built entirely on relationships, curiosity and a willingness to bet on people. Those are the same qualities that build a great sports business career, and as that afternoon in Flaum Grand Hall made clear, they are exactly what make Whitman, and Syracuse, a place worth being proud of.