Bio

Meet Rob Bentley 

Rob Bentley, a two-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) National Champion Sports Information Director, is midst his 22nd year working in the Athletics Communications Office at Ferris State University in the 2021-22 athletics season and was recently promoted to Associate Athletics Director where he continues to coordinate the Bulldogs' media relations, broadcast, multimedia and social media efforts while leading the department's external operations team. He was honored as Ferris State University's 2014 Distinguished Staff Award recipient for his service and excellence to the university, becoming the first athletics staff member to be recognized with the distinction.

In addition to his duties as Associate Athletics Director, he also is the radio voice of Ferris State football, men's and women's basketball and volleyball and the host of the Ferris Sports Update television show. 

Prior to his current position, Bentley was the Assistant Athletics Director for communications since 2011, heading the athletics communications area. He formerly served as Associate Athletics Communications Director since 2008 following eight years initially as the assistant director in the athletics communications office.

A member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), Bentley has been recognized numerous times by the organization for excellence in publications along with writing and earned national "Best Cover" honors for his women's basketball yearbook two consecutive years.

In his time at Ferris State, Bentley has been honored four times as the American Volleyball Coaches Association's (AVCA) Division II Midwest Region Women's Volleyball SID of the Year for his role promoting the Bulldog volleyball program. He's also received acclaim several times from both the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) and CoSIDA in each of the organization's annual nationwide awards programs in a variety of categories, including overseeing multimedia efforts that have resulted in FSU being recognized with both the nation's best social media campaign and nation's best digital video honors in recent years. In 2018, he received the CoSIDA National Champion Sports Information Director Award for his work with the Bulldogs' men's basketball national championship squad and was recognized with the same distinction in the fall of 2021 for his work with the Bulldogs' national championship NCAA Division II football team.

In 2013, Bentley spearheaded the Bulldogs' involvement in the Michigan's "Best Sports Logo" contest sponsored by the Detroit Free Press with FSU eventually winning the competition over such iconic organizations as the Detroit Lions, Red Wings & Tigers among others. The social media effort went on to receive the prestigious "Gold Award" for the nation's best social media campaign in the NACMA Awards competition, marking the second-straight year in which FSU finished among the top three in the category. FSU was presented the prestigious "Gold Award" for the nation's best video production piece in 2021.

Bentley coordinated the nomination process and promotion for the school's first Harlon Hill Trophy recipient in quarterback two-time winner Jason Vander Laan, who was chosen as the Division II Player of the Year in both 2014 and 2015. In his time at FSU, he's also played a lead role in promoting other student-athletes who have achieved major national honors, including 2011 Division II Men's Basketball National Player of the Year Justin Keenan along with 2014 National Premier Player of the Year and Hobey Baker Top 10 finalist CJ Motte in men's ice hockey. In 2018, quarterback Jayru Campbell became FSU's third Harlon Hill Trophy winner in the last five years and men's basketball standout Zach Hankins was tabbed as the nation's D2 Player of the Year in 2017-18.

Bentley's various responsibilities at Ferris State include publicizing the school's 17 intercollegiate sports, maintaining and developing the athletics department's web site (www.FerrisStateBulldogs.com) along with designing and editing department publications. He's the department's primary media contact, serves as the official statistican and historian while also coordinating all student-athlete and administrative award nominations.

Bentley has served as a radio play-by-play voice for the FSU football along with men's and women's basketball teams on the Bulldog Sports Network and local radio for the past 20 years and coordinates FSU's online audio & video webcasting agreements in addition to maintaining and developing other various multimedia and social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Bentley is a member of the Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) and is also the current host of the "Ferris Sports Update" television show highlighting FSU Athletics, which has been shown live across the state on both broadcast and cable outlets for the past 12 years.  He also previously hosted the "Bulldog Beat" Football Show, an online weekly talk radio program during the season and "Mic'd Up Monday's", a live coaches radio show recorded at various local establishments.

He presently serves on the university's Social Media Team and the Sports Leadership Institue Advisory Board for the university's sports communication program while being previously involved with the Foursquare Steering Committee. Bentley's also been active in several community and professional organizations, including serving on the board for the Northland United Soccer Club, coaching travel basketball and softball in addition to being the webmaster for the Big Rapids Men's Softball Association. Presently, he's the regional coordinator for the Division II Men's Basketball Midwest Region Media Poll and is a national committee voting member for the D2 Men's Basketball Media Rankings along with the Don Hansen's Football Gazette All-Super Region squad.

Prior to his arrival at Ferris, Bentley was an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Nebraska at Kearney for three years. While coaching at Nebraska-Kearney, Bentley helped the Lopers compile a 65-25 overall record and an NCAA Division II Sweet 16 finish in 1999. He also served as the boys basketball camp and clinic director and previously was a student assistant in the men's basketball program for five years. In all, he worked in the UNK Basketball program for eight seasons in which the squad made four consecutive trips to the NCAA-II North Central Regional Tournament from 1995-99 and claimed the 1997-98 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament Championship.

Besides being involved in the Loper basketball program, Bentley was an administrative and game operations assistant at Mr. Basketball, Inc., based in Kearney. While with Mr. Basketball, Bentley was involved with the organization and administration of two national high school AAU tournaments and five youth basketball tournaments a year. He was also the media relations contact for Mr. Basketball.

During his career at Nebraska-Kearney, Bentley also served as a sports information assistant in the UNK Media Relations Office. Previously, he worked as a sports writer for the Kearney Hub and Grand Island (Neb.) Independent newspapers along with interning for the McCook (Neb.) Daily Gazette. He served as the managing editor and award-winning sports editor of the UNK Antelope newspaper while in college. Bentley also spent time working as a disc jockey and sports announcer for radio station KICK-KBRL in McCook.

A native of McCook, Neb., Bentley graduated from Nebraska-Kearney with a bachelor's degree in journalism/mass communications in 1997. He received a master's degree in education (sports administration) from UNK in 1999.  The 1992 McCook High School graduate played four years of prep football, helping the Bison to a Nebraska state playoff appearance as a senior, and served as a student assistant with the boys basketball squad. He was also honored numerous times in the Nebraska Press Association's high school journalism awards competition, winning a state championship for sportswriting.

An avid noontime basketball player, Bentley also has held membership in the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Football Writers Association of America. 

His wife, Jenny, is a teacher at Brookside Elementary in Big Rapids. They reside in Big Rapids along with their two daughters, Addison and Ava.