David Ridpath, Ed.D.

Assistant Professor
Sports Administration
Ohio University

Dr. B. David Ridpath is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University. He began his current position in 2006. Dr. Ridpath has several years of practical experience in the sports industry and teaches classes in marketing, sponsorship, risk management, sports law, issues in intercollegiate athletics, and other areas to include serving as faculty advisor and Associate General Manager of the Southern Ohio Copperheads, a summer collegiate wooden bat baseball team headquartered in Athens. The Copperheads are a main experiential learning laboratory for graduate and undergraduate sports administration and sports management students and is entirely student run. He also serves on the Faculty Board of Advisors of the Ralph and Lucy Schey Sales Center and is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. This is Ridpath’s second stint at Ohio. He previously served as assistant wrestling coach at Ohio from 1994-95. While on legendary head coach Harry Houska’s staff, the Bobcat wrestling team won the Mid American Conference wrestling championship in 1995 and finished 19th in the country. He also earned a Masters of Sports Administration and Facility Management degree from Ohio in 1995.

Prior to returning to Ohio University, Ridpath spent two years directing the graduate sports administration program at Mississippi State University placing graduates in positions within the MSU athletic department, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), NASCAR, and minor league baseball. Prior to MSU, he spent over a decade working in intercollegiate athletic administration and higher education including seven years at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia where he served as an Adjunct Professor of Sport Management and Marketing, Director of Judicial Programs and Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Student Services.

He also worked in the athletic department at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, for three years from 1995-1997 as Assistant Director of Marketing and Promotions, Game and Event Management Coordinator, Director of Internal Operations, and Director of Compliance. While at Weber State he served as a media manager at the 1997 NCAA Men’s Basketball Western Regional in Salt Lake City and as Co-director of the Mid-American Conference Wrestling Tournament in 1996. As an undergraduate student at Colorado State University, he was a 1990 Distinguished Military Graduate in Army ROTC and spent almost 12 years on active duty and in the Army National Guard, including two overseas tours in Germany. He is also a certified college and international wrestling official.

Ridpath received a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration from West Virginia University in May 2002. His primary research line is issues and problems in intercollegiate athletics with a focus on academic integrity and governance reform. An accomplished scholar, he has over 30 national and international refereed presentations and nine peer reviewed academic articles in print in journals such as The Journal of Intercollegiate Sport; The Journal is Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, where he is also a member of the Editorial Board; The  Sociology of Sport Journal, and the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport. In addition, he has three published academic book chapters, and has had writings and editorials featured in the NCAA News, Sports Business Journal, Legal Issues in College Athletics, and will be releasing a book entitled Tainted Glory: Marshall University, The NCAA, and One Man’s Fight for Justice in fall 2011. Dr. Ridpath has been retained several times as an expert in litigation involving college sports issues and is regularly interviewed on relevant issues in college sports within the media to include ESPN Outside the Lines, The Paul Finebaum Radio Show, Sports Business Radio and WATH Sports Radio. Dr Ridpath has also been quoted and featured in several publications discussing issues in college athletics including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Toronto Globe and Mail, USA Today, Indianapolis Star, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Birmingham News, to name a few. Ridpath is married to the former Jacqueline Grech of Eltmann, Germany and they have two children, Bradley and Chiara.