Sports Poll Staff
Charles Grantham is the Director of the Center for Sports Management and is deeply involved in professional sports, in both an academic and professional capacity. He has served as a Stillman School adjunct professor and a visiting clinical assistant professor in New York University’s School of Professional Studies.
As a union executive with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) from 1976 to 1995, he transformed the NBPA to a multifaceted organization designed to enhance the League’s image and to protect its players. As a principal negotiator, he helped to establish the League’s four historic Collective Bargaining Agreements and was an architect of the industry’s first revenue-sharing/salary cap business model – a multi-billion-dollar labor contract.
He has been a keynote speaker for numerous organizations and universities, has served as an expert analyst for several media outlets and authored articles featured in The New York Times, SportsBusiness Journal and SI.com.
Grantham has an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and has completed doctoral course work at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Education.
Sports are a passion for Dr. Dan-o and he served on the Social Media Advisory Board for the 2014 NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee. Prior to Seton Hall University, Professor Ladik taught for seven years in the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University in Boston.
Professor Ladik earned his Ph.D. in marketing at the University of South Florida in Tampa and holds BS (economics), MA (international marketing) and MBA degrees from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Len DeLuca teaches in the Stillman School’s Sport Management Program since 2021 and serves as Associate Director of the Seton Hall Sports Poll. He also teaches at NYU’s Stern School of Business. DeLuca teaches Sports Law, Sports Business Analytics and Legal Foundations, and advises the Sports Management and Analytics Club. DeLuca was honored as the 2023 University-wide and Stillman School Adjunct Teacher of the year.
DeLuca comes to Seton Hall after 35 years as a senior programming executive at ESPN, CBS Sports and IMG. During his career, he oversaw programming and media rights for major properties including NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, MLB, NBA and Grand Slam tennis. He also serves as a consultant and legal expert witness on sports media rights cases and content acquisitions including in re NFL Sunday Ticket.
DeLuca earned his B.A. magna cum laude in political science and economics from Boston College, and his J.D. from Boston College Law School.
Larry McCarthy, Ph.D., teaches in the Stillman School’s Sport Management Program. His research focuses
on sport marketing and has appeared in the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Marketing Quarterly and the European Journal of Sport Management. He co-authored with colleagues William Sutton and Richard Irwin the text Sport Promotion and Sales Management.
McCarthy has wide-ranging international sport business experience having served as President of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). He became the 40th President of the GAA in 2021 and was the first person, in the 136 year history of the GAA, to be elected to this prestigious position from outside of Ireland. He has extensive Olympic Games Organizing Committee experience, having worked as an Olympic Envoy with The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG). He is a founding member of the Sport Marketing Association.
He received a B.Ed. from the University of Limerick, an M.A. from New York University and a Ph.D. in sport management from The Ohio State University. He was inducted into the University of Limerick Sport Hall of Fame in 2024. He is Chairman of the Seton Hall University Athletic Council and is a former director of the Institute of International Business in the Stillman School.
Emeritus
He also served as president and executive producer of Diamond Sports and Entertainment, and senior vice president, executive producer of The Football Network. Currently, he is president and executive producer of his own company, 24 Productions. An instructor in the Department of Management, Gentile teaches a course on The Business of Sports Television.
He received a B.A. in sociology from Queens College and did graduate work in criminal justice at John Jay College.
Marty Appel was a publicist for the Seton Hall Sports Poll. He was once the youngest PR director
in Major League Baseball history and is most identified with the New York Yankees.
In the 90s he served as PR director and executive producer of the team's telecasts.
He continues his association as a contributor to Yankeeographies, as a broadcaster
on Yankees.com and as a contributor to Yankees Magazine.
Appel was the winner of an Emmy Award, a Casey Award, the Dick Young Award for long and meritorious service to baseball, and the Dick Steinberg Good Guy Award. He is also the author of countless magazine articles and 18 books, including the NYT best-selling biography of Thurman Munson. His latest book is Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss.
He is SUNY graduate with a degree in political science.
Michael Ricciardelli serves as a publicist and media strategist for the Seton Hall Sports Poll and has
extensive experience in communications, writing and media relations. He previously
served as Associate Director of Media Relations at Seton Hall University, where he
worked with university leadership, faculty and the Seton Hall Sports Poll to secure
national media coverage for research, scholarship and university initiatives.
In addition to his university work, Ricciardelli is principal of MJR Communications, providing writing, editing and media strategy services for educational institutions, governmental agencies, law firms and private businesses. His work has appeared in major media outlets including The New York Times, Forbes, NPR and The Washington Post.
Ricciardelli earned his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law, a Graduate Certificate in Strategic Organizational Communications from Seton Hall University and a B.A. in English from Drew University.