A servant leader with a focus on improving the student-athlete experience withiin The Big West and the NCAA, Dan Butterly was named commissioner of The Big West on May 4, 2020 and officially began his responsibilities as commissioner of The Big West on July 1, 2020, the same day UC San Diego and Cal State Bakersfield joined as full members of the conference.

During an unprecedented health crisis facing college sports and significant challenges confronting the The Big West and NCAA. Butterly hit the ground running taking action on positive changes for The Big West and its membership. During his first year, working with his staff, Butterly:

• Negotiated a partnership with ESPN to start in 2021-22 guaranteeing linear broadcast exposure for The Big West and national broadcast exposure/awareness of campus-produced games on ESPN+. The agreement saw a six-fold increase in revenues and an increase from 60 games produced annually during the 2010’s to 2020-21 to over 1,000 games produced and broadcast during the 2021-22 academic year and 1,200 in 2022-23.
• Worked with membership to establish the first standing committee within The Big West with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Big West Undivided features equal representation of student-athletes to administrators/coaches with the vice-chair a student-athlete.
• Negotiated an agreement with Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment to market corporate partnerships and sponsorships for The Big West to assist in generating revenue to improve championships in The Big West and the student-athlete experience. During the first two years of this true partnership, The Big West is generating record sponsorship interest and revenues.
• Negotiated a partnership with Collegiate Licensing Company to establish a national licensing program in an effort to grow The Big West brand.
• Negotiated an agreement to conduct a combined 2021 Big West Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships featuring 20 men’s and women’s teams at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

The Big West took the lead on governance initiatives inclusive of leading a group of conferences not represented on either the NCAA Transformation Committee, the NCAA Board of Governors or the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to work together to call for full representation and change within the NCAA governance structure.

With significant attention to integrity, ethics, transparency and communication, Butterly guided a number of initiatives to overhaul and update The Big West, including the development of a budget, upgrading the financial processes and procedures, updating the bylaws, constitution, and sportsmanship procedures, improving human resources and professional development for staff and writing weekly updates to the Board of Directors and Council entitled “This Week in The Big West”, which provides information on NCAA and Big West initiatives, to linking to stories of student-athletes and leadership opportunities.

Utilizing revenues generated from the new ESPN agreement, The Big West staff developed a broadcast strategy that for the first time in the history of The Big West, provided broadcast coverage for all women’s and men’s championships. Not only would all sports and student-athletes now have the opportunity to be seen during the regular-season under the new ESPN agreement, but the stories of student-athletes and their competitive success would be showcased during championship broadcasts.

A native of Washington, Ill., Butterly got his start in the field of athletics as the head basketball manager under head coach Bob Bender at Illinois State University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University and his Masters of Sports Administration degree at Ohio University, where he received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award as recognized by his peers. In April 2005, he was honored as the recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Illinois State University. In the Fall of 2023, he was named to the Washington (IL) Community High School Hall of Fame.