Michael Causey joined Charleston Southern in July of 2023 as the Associate Director of Athletic Communications. He brings over seven years of collegiate athletics media experience with him to his role with the Buccaneers. In December of 2023, Causey was elevated to the role of Assistant A.D. for Athletic Communications overseeing all aspects of the department's media including sports information. He began, developed and spearheaded the department's student internship program, growing it from zero students to over a dozen in its first year. Additionally, in February of 2025, Causey started to oversee the Buccaneers' creative services and broadcast departments to have oversight of all areas of CSU athletics media.
During his first year with the Bucs, Causey helped grow the social following of the programs he originally worked with considerably with each having their total number of followers increase by 30% or higher in less than 10 months. One of these was the volleyball program which grew by over 40% (just under 2000 total followers added)Â and consistently found itself in the national spotlight with multiple posts being featured on the NCAA Volleyball account creating exposure for the team they had never achieved before. The other programs he worked with (cross country, baseball, track and field) also were able to garner national attention with their appearances on the NCAA sport specific accounts during their championship seasons.
At the conclusion of his first year and a half leading the department (end of May 2025), the consistent gain in exposure of the programs was something that was constantly on display for the squads. The athletic department's social media pages grew by an average of 24% on X, formerly Twitter, and 40% on Instagram which accounted for nearly 37,000 new followers in total across the Buccaneers' online presence, increasing the value of the school, its brand and visibility. Along with this, website traffic grew by 21% during the year as fans of the programs had more information and profiles on student-athletes more readily available. Additionally, general website maintenance was conducted to get the page back up-to-date from student-athlete bios, coach bios and record books along with other frequently visited pages across csusports.com.
Additionally, during that first year in the Lowcountry, Causey established a pair of official rivalries for the Buccaneer football program which each begin in the 2024 season. The first was the introduction of the "North/South Barbecue Bowl" which will be played against Gardner-Webb, a longtime conference foe dating back to 2002, the inaugural season of Big South football. The second was the "Lowcountry Boil Bowl" which will be competed against The Citadel and served as the season opener for the two squads. He spearheaded the project, working on everything with the project varying from the trophy design, naming of the rivalry and traditions that will accompany the game, trophy and rivalry.
One of the more unique moments of his time with the Buccaneers came during the fall of 2024 when he wore the coach hat for the department's women's golf program. Due to a scheduling conflict with the men's and women's golf teams, Causey stepped in to drive the team to their event in Burlington, N.C. at the Elon Invitational and serve as their "coach" for the week. The team ended up claiming the tournament title and gaining national and regional exposure through feature stories onÂ
ESPN.com and
WCIV's Scott Eisberg with the historic victory.
Causey spent four years as a student assistant in the department of athletics media relations with Gardner-Webb as the primary contact for five sports and assisted in all 22 varsity athletic programs at the school. He oversaw the coverage for the 2023 Conference Regular Season Championship for the Men's Tennis program and the program's first athlete to earn Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors, Victor Putter.
While with the Runnin' Bulldogs, he worked under the supervision of one of the premier Sports Information minds in the country, Marc Rabb. Rabb is a member of the Athletics Hall of Fame at the school as a 25 year veteran of the industry and a frequent selection of the conference's SID of the year award. He now serves as the Associate Commissioner for Championships at the Southern Conference.
During Causey's senior year he was in charge of gameday staffing and training while serving as the primary statistical inputter for the majority of athletic events at the school. Also during his time with GWU, he served as a supervisor for the office's work study students as well as the ones completing internships.
He got his start in athletics while he was a student at Greenville Technical Charter High School in Greenville, S.C. by completing an internship in the Furman University athletic communications department. He was under the supervision of Hunter Reid while with the Paladins, a well decorated vet of the sports information field with over 40 years of industry experience.
Causey obtained both his undergraduate degrees, sport management and communications (public relations concentration) from Gardner-Webb University in May of 2023 along with minors in discipleship and Spanish. In January of 2025, he began work on his Master's of Business Administration through Charleston Southern University with an anticipated graduation date of May 2026.
