Robert A. Boland

Robert A. Boland joined Penn State University as Athletics Integrity Officer in July 2017.  In this role, he works to ensure the Athletics Department is meeting all University standards related to integrity, ethics, staff and student conduct and welfare, as well as NCAA and Big Ten standards.

The position, the first of its kind, was created in August 2012 in an agreement with the NCAA, Big Ten and Penn State.  It was charged with oversight and reporting of internal and external investigations into athletics.  With that agreement expiring in August 2017, the University is maintaining the position as part of its own broader Athletic Integrity Program.  Boland chairs the University’s Athletics Integrity Council, a group that brings together senior administrators and faculty to review matters related to athletics and reports to the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and the Board of Trustees.

Boland joined Penn State from Ohio University, where he was a faculty member and directed the MBA/Masters in Sports Administration program.  Ohio University was ranked as “the #1 Graduate Sports Business Program in the World” by Sports Business International, in each of Boland’s two years there.  He spent the prior 14 years at New York University.  First, as founding faculty in its Masters in Sports Business program; later as Academic Chair of NYU’s Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management, a division serving more that 700 students and five degree programs. He also taught Sports Law at NYU Law School.

Boland also brings more than 20 years of legal experience to the role.  He has been an administrative law judge in New York City, a confidential assistant to a State Supreme Court Justice and an assistant district attorney.  For more than decade he was an active player agent negotiating more than 100 sports contracts and endorsement agreements. He has also advised a range of boutique clients including pro franchise purchase groups, pro teams, universities and conferences. 

Boland earned varsity letters in football and wrestling at Columbia University.  After graduation, he worked in collegiate athletics at Columbia and the University of Tennessee, before attending law school at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law.