Brent Richard & Drew Weatherford: Expanding College Sports with Project Add More Athletes"

Brent Richard is the CEO of IMG Academy, the world leader in sports education, and Drew Weatherford is a Founding Partner at Weatherford Capital, a private investment firm focused on growth equity in rapidly growing technology and technology-enabled businesses with a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-government (B2G) focus, as well as those operating in highly regulated industries. Together, they are leading Project Add More Athletes—an initiative to expand roster spots in college sports and create more opportunities for youth athletes to compete and develop at the next level.

Across IMG Academy’s on-campus and online programs, its student-athletes fill roughly 25% of all college freshman roster spots annually, making it one of the most influential organizations in youth sports. Brent and Drew are advocating for structural changes in the NCAA system—such as bringing back JV teams, allowing multi-division programs in the same sport, and building participation-based models proven at IMG—to meet the growing demand from the 8 million high school athletes in the U.S., of whom only 500,000 currently get a roster spot.

Project Add More Athletes is more than a policy push—it’s a movement to reimagine the pathway from youth to collegiate athletics. With strategic deregulation, universities could increase athlete participation, strengthen Olympic and non-revenue sports, and enhance the student experience—all while driving enrollment and community engagement.

Chapters:
01:36 – Understanding the Landscape of Youth Sports
04:11 – Catalysts for Change in College Sports
08:31 – Proposed Framework for Expanding Opportunities
13:26 – Navigating Deregulation in College Sports
17:34 – Vision for the Future of Youth Athletics
20:24 – Introduction to Athlete Inclusion
22:51 – Community Engagement and Feedback
25:36 – Future Directions and Strategic Conversations