Zachary Hurst joined the Missouri Valley Conference as Assistant Commissioner, External Relations in September 2023.
At The Valley, Hurst is part of an in-house team that secures corporate sponsorships and television advertising clients. His primary focus is partnerships during Missouri Valley Conference-controlled linear and digital video productions and event sponsorship sales for all 18 MVC sports championships, including the State Farm MVC Men’s Basketball Tournament in St. Louis and the MVC Women’s Basketball Championship in each of the rotating cities (Evansville, Ind., in 2025; Coralville, Iowa, in 2026; and Moline, Ill., in 2027).
A native of Borden, Ind., Hurst joined the Conference staff after serving as the Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships for the Daytona Tortugas professional baseball team. At Daytona, he developed and activated corporate sales packages, including multi-layered partnerships, and assisted in the creation and implementation of customer and business to business-based promotions.
Prior to his time with the Tortugas, Hurst spent three years (2019-2022) at Stetson University as Assistant Director of Athletic Marketing for two seasons and Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing, Sponsorship & Community Outreach in his final campaign with the Hatters.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University in 2013 and a master’s degree in athletic administration from Indiana University in 2014, worked four years at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks as Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing/Promotion and later as Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs while receiving an MBA from the school in 2016.
He spent the 2018-19 academic year at Ashland University as Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing, Promotions, Camps & Game Operations, prior to joining the staff at Stetson.