Mike Freeman was promoted to Deputy Athletic Director for Revenue & Engagement in September of 2025.
Freeman had previously served as Sr. Associate Athletic Director for External Operations since 2017 and was elevated to Associate Athletic Director in 2009. With the promotion to Deputy AD, Freeman will continue to lead the department’s revenue generation through oversight of ticketing, corporate partnerships, licensing, marketing and content. He serves as the primary contact with Playfly and the department’s multi-media rights efforts with Butler Athletic Partners, a division of Playfly. Freeman also oversaw the addition of Affinity Licensing as the University’s partner in 2022.
Freeman also plays a major role in fundraising with the Bulldog Club and its capital projects, while also working closely with University units such the President’s Office, Alumni Relations and Development, University Marketing and Communications and the Butler Arts & Events Center.
Currently Freeman supervises the Butler men’s basketball, softball and men’s soccer programs. He previously has had sport supervision responsibilities with nearly all of Butler’s 22 teams.
Freeman has led Butler Athletics to a number of new heights and growth. Butler set new marks for men's basketball season tickets and corporate partnership revenue each season from 2009-10 through 2013-14. Those numbers, as well as increases to Butler men’s basketball regular season average attendance marks climbed into the 7,000s before vaulting to an average of 8,358 during the 2016-17 season, the best mark on record since the 1960’s. That mark was eclipsed again during the 2019-20 season when average attendance hit 8,617 and 99% of capacity during BIG EAST Conference games. Â
Freeman is also involved with men’s basketball events, serving as the primary administrator for postseason play and coordinating efforts for regular season tournaments and neutral site events. Â
Freeman has been involved in the fundraising and construction projects for many of Butler’s facility enhancements over his tenure, most notably the Butler Bowl renovation of 2010 and the $36 million preservation of Hinkle Fieldhouse in 2014 and the Efroymson Family Gym renovation in 2019.
Prior to his appointment to Associate AD in 2009, Freeman was Butler’s Manager of External Operations from 2006 to 2009. Freeman oversaw the Bulldog Club, Butler's primary athletic support organization, as well as development for its capital improvements. Freeman's efforts have helped Bulldog Club giving amounts double after three straight years of increased annual support. Bulldog Club membership increased from just under 1,000 members in 2005-06 to over 1,700 in 2007-08. He also oversaw special events, including Golfest, the Basketball Tip-Off Dinner, the department's Priority Points System and gameday hospitality for football, men's and women's basketball.
From 2004 to 2006, Freeman had responsibilities in athletic development, marketing and promotion, ticketing and corporate sponsorship at the University of Indianapolis. Prior to his appointment at UIndy in August of 2004, Freeman served as a graduate assistant in Athletic Media Relations at Western Illinois University for two years. He assisted in all areas of media relations and hosted the football program’s weekly in-season television show. He began his athletic career as a student assistant in the Sports Information Office at the University of Northern Iowa, where he attended as an undergraduate.
He previously served as a team instructor at the University of Indianapolis Sport Management Masters Program from 2011-2015, Butler’s College of Education from 2015-18. Freeman is now working closely with Butler’s College of Communication’s Sport Management program which debuted in 2025.
A native of East Moline, Ill., Freeman earned his undergraduate degree in Marketing Management from Northern Iowa in 2002 and his master's degree in Sport Management from Western Illinois in 2004.
He and his wife, Melody, have three children (Anabelle Leblanc, Emilia and Abram), a son-in-law (Keenan Leblanc) and two dogs (Charlie Murphy and Benny Kamar). Freeman’s father, Gary, played football at Kansas State University from 1970-75.
