Sometimes we forget the less visible people in an athletic department. Even though they aren’t all over the television, they still mean a lot to the department’s success.

On March 20, NIU Athletic Director Jeff Compher named Christian Spears senior associate athletic director for Administration and Academic Enrollment Services.

Spears’ duties will include working with NIU’s Student-Athlete Academic Support Services and overseeing the NCAA compliance unit.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to be at a high-profile Division I program,” Spears said. “From a compliance standpoint there’s a whole lot we can do.”

Spears comes to NIU from Southern Illinois University, where he spent five years as an assistant athletic director. Prior to SIU, Spears worked as assistant director of compliance at Harvard from 2002 to 2003 and assistant director of marketing at Long Beach State from 1997 to 1999.

“We feel like we’re really getting a seasoned professional that can help us,” Compher said. “Obviously he has a great background in compliance and in working with admissions.”

One of Spears’ duties will be to look at the NCAA Graduation Success Rate and Academic Progress Rate. The APR consists of looking at each school’s retention, eligibility and graduation of student-athletes.

If a certain team falls below a 925 on the APR, it can face penalties, such as a loss of scholarships. Currently NIU is doing well in the area. The lowest score an NIU team has is men’s basketball with 930, while the highest is women’s basketball with a 984.

One thing Spears will do is project future APR rates.

“You can project forward,” Spears said. “NIU has always been above the national norm. I’m very comfortable in assuming that is going to continue.”