Staff Spotlight: Nicole Repetto

This is the 12th in a biweekly series spotlighting the men and women behind the scenes supporting Temple Athletics.

Nicole Repetto joined Temple Athletics in December 2021 as an Assistant Director of Compliance and Student-Athlete Affairs. She most recently had served as a Grants and Contracts Analyst at Geisinger Clinic following a Postgraduate Internship in Enforcement with the NCAA from June 2019 - May 2020.

While with the NCAA, Repetto received, reviewed, and processed self-reported Secondary and Level III violations from institutions and conferences and provided case support to investigators during investigations of Major, Level I, and Level II violations. Repetto also monitored the web for information related to ongoing cases and participated in mock hearings, review boards, and other Enforcement quality control initiatives.

Prior to her time at the NCAA, Repetto served as a legal intern with The Ohio State University from May 2017 - June 2019 while obtaining her law degree. While with the Buckeyes, she performed duties including but not limited to aiding in community education efforts to help educate businesses, dealerships, real estate agencies, and landlords on NCAA and Big Ten rules, creating materials to distribute to the community, boosters, student-athletes, coaches, and staff to educate on common NCAA violations, drafting various NCAA waivers, reporting infractions and violations to the NCAA, completing transcript evaluations for prospective, transfer, and international student-athletes, and assisting in the verification process of student-athletes' employment.

Repetto earned a Bachelor's of Science in Sport Management from Eastern Michigan in April of 2016, and served as an athletic compliance intern from January - June of 2016. Prior to her internship, she was the Manager of Football Operations for the Eagles' football program from May - December of 2015.

Talk about your career path to your current role with Temple Athletics. When did you first realize you wanted to work in the field of athletics compliance?
"I started out as a music education major at Eastern Michigan University and then developed carpal tunnel syndrome so I couldn't play my flute anymore. So, after two years in music school, I made the decision to continue with music as a hobby and switched my major to sports management and stuck with it. Then for an internship after my junior year I started as a manager of football operations. It was a great experience, but I realized I did not want to do operations. After talking with other people in the athletic department, compliance sounded interesting and I knew I wanted to go to Law School, so it seemed to fit together well. I ended up really liking it.
I then went to Law School at Ohio State and after my 1L year I became an intern in their compliance office and stayed there for my 2L and 3L years. I was also their first paid intern which gave me the opportunity to quit my part-time job and focus on school and my internship. From there I went to the NCAA as one of their postgraduate interns in Enforcement, so it was cool to see the other side of compliance. It was interesting, but in Enforcement, you only see the negative things that happen on campuses.
I knew I wanted to get back on campus after my internship, but my internship ended during the pandemic, so I was unemployed for about six months. During that time, I ended up getting a job at a hospital in central Pennsylvania, Geisinger Clinic, doing grants and contracts administration. I found that the job was pretty similar to what I was doing on campuses, not subject material, but scientists are actually a lot like coaches. Instead of athletics teams they have their research teams, so they manage many groups of scientists and researchers.
From there I started looking for compliance jobs when they started to open. I wanted to stay in Pennsylvania and Temple was my top choice because my dad is from Philly and two of my grandparents went to Temple.

You worked at both the institutional and the NCAA level in compliance? What were the differences and which do you enjoy more?
"I enjoy being at an institution more. I had a great experience in Enforcement at the NCAA, but you don't have any direct interaction with student-athletes and that is what it is all about. So, being on campus you actually get to interact with coaches and student-athletes. Even though sometimes the job can be a little stressful, it is still nice working with them and getting to be involved in what they do as opposed to just seeing the violations."

What is the most challenging aspect of your position?
"Compliance is always seen as the bad guy. No matter what happens it seems to be compliance's fault. But the biggest thing is balancing all the different tasks we have to make sure nothing is missed, and everything gets taken care of in a timely manner. Right now, I am working on initial eligibility reviews, official and unofficial visits, textbooks, and we are getting ready to assign students to housing spaces for next year. So, being able to balance and prioritize tasks is key to making sure everything gets done."

What do you enjoy the most about your work? (5:47)
"Working with the student-athletes. Our compliance team is great. The good thing about compliance is you get to work with every department. So, you get to work with a lot of different people. You are not stuck doing the same thing all the time. You get to work with coaches, student-athletes, and all the staff, and every day is something different."

Where do you see yourself in five/10 years?
"I think still in compliance. I do really like it. A lot of my friends and family ask me if I would like to be an Athletic Director someday and honestly no. I think the highest position I would like to be in is Kristy's (Bannon) position, in charge of a compliance office. I also like being at the institutional level. I was at Ohio State in their department, and they have 17 full-time compliance staff members. I believe it may be the largest compliance department in the country. I loved my experience at Ohio State but after my two years there, there were still people in the athletic department that I had never met before. I think I like being at an institution like Temple or Eastern Michigan where you get to have more responsibilities and get to be involved with more of the student-athletes, coaches, and staff."

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Staff Spotlight: Nicole Repetto

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