National Football Foundation

Having spent four decades in college athletics, Wright Waters has become one of the nation's most influential powerbrokers, creating both athletic and academic opportunities for the student-athletes. He took the top job at the Sun Belt Conference in 1998, and he expanded the conference to 19 sports while setting in place key initiatives to encourage academic performance. Under his leadership the conference entered the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2001 and subsequently signed a pivotal eight-year television deal with ESPN. He has also brokered multi-year agreements with regional television networks and two primary bowl sponsors. He announced this past summer that he will retire in July 2012. 

Prior to his time at the Sun Belt Conference, Waters served as the general manager of Crimson Tide Sports Marketing in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He worked for 10 years at the Southern Conference, serving as the league's commissioner for the final seven years. He joined the Southern Conference after a four-year stint at Tulane University, where he served as Associate Athletic Director and later as the Interim Athletic Director. 

Waters has an extensive professional background in collegiate athletics dating back to 1976 when he served four years as an Administrative Assistant and Academic Director at Southern Mississippi. He was an Assistant Athletic Director at Florida from April 1979 to July 1983 and an Associate Athletic Director at Louisiana-Lafayette from July 1983 to December 1984. He began his career in athletics as the Head Trainer and Student Assistant Football Coach at Livingston from 1972-74. 

Waters graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery, Ala., in 1967. He attended Alabama and received a bachelor's degree in physical education from Livingston University in 1974 and a master's degree in secondary education from Livingston in 1975. Waters was born June 22, 1949, in Montgomery, Ala., and is married to the former Sara Anderson of York, Ala. They have one daughter, Ashley.