College bowl season is highlighted by big plays, big upsets, big names, and big stats to put in the books for next year. But the bigger picture of bowl games lies behind the limelight to be able to kick them off smoothly with success. 

And no one knows that better than Rachel Quigley, executive director of the nationally televised Myrtle Beach Bowl, held at Brooks Stadium on the campus of Coastal Carolina University (CCU). She stepped into the role in 2020, the inaugural year of the bowl, when the entire world shut down because of Covid—especially athletics and special events that host a mass crowd of spectators.

“Yeah, it was interesting,” says Quigley with a laugh. “Starting in February, everything shut down within four to six weeks of starting the job, and I was just trying to figure out how to navigate selling sponsorships, selling tickets when we didn’t even know really what was happening or how long things would really be shut down. Businesses were not making money, and some were losing money, so they weren’t necessarily interested in speaking with us at that time. And then, in terms of ticket sales, we really had no idea if we were even going to be able to sell tickets or not. We were very fortunate that we actually did get to kick off our game because there were a lot of games that had their teams come to town, and then the teams all got Covid and the game was canceled 24 hours beforehand, so I was super grateful for that.”

Five years later, the Myrtle Beach Bowl is stronger than ever, with the 2024 kickoff on Monday, December 23, at 11 a.m. that mostly matches up teams in the Mid-American Conference, The Sunbelt Conference, and Conference USA. On top of that success itself is that Quigley is only one of six female college bowl and playoff game executive directors out of 43 males who stand at the helm across the country.

“Honestly, everybody is really receptive and willing to share information,” she says. “There’s nothing like, ‘I’m not sharing it with you because you’re in a different market or because of your gender.’ A lot of these guys have been in the industry—especially those that run much larger bowl games—for a long time, so they have a lot of experience and knowledge to bring to the table. Whereas, there are a couple of us that are a little bit newer in the college football space specifically. So, frankly, being a woman, I haven’t run into any issues, specifically being a woman.”

Quigley grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia, and had her first brush with South Carolina as a graduate of Clemson University, where she earned a degree in marketing, with a concentration in sports marketing.

The Clemson athletics department is where she honed her sports marketing skills as a student, working in promotions and operations for the baseball, soccer, tennis, and football teams. Quigley says she played club soccer in high school, but never at the collegiate level.

“The college athlete’s dedication and level of skill that they have is far beyond anything that I was ever blessed with,” she says with a laugh.

What she has been blessed with is the talent of sports marketing and leading a team with a lot of complicated, moving parts to pull off major sporting events. While at Clemson, Quigley interned with the Philadelphia Eagles Training Camp held at Lehigh University.

“It was super cool,” she says. “There were 16 of us in that program. And it’s been neat to see everybody that stayed in the industry and keep in contact with them. Some now work more on the entertainment side and some are working for big NFL and MLB teams, and then some have pursued other career paths, too.”

Post-graduation, Quigley also did an internship with the Boston Red Sox for spring training through one full season and assisted with production in Super Bowl XLVIII, LII, and LII. This was followed by a full-time marketing position at the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, specifically working with the men’s and women’s Big South Basketball Championships that used to be held at CCU. 

After CCU moved to the Sun Belt Conference and that championship game also moved to a different location, she worked for the next five years with the Chamber and Visit Myrtle Beach to ramp up the area’s sports tourism efforts. That included working alongside ESPN Events on the relocated Puerto Rico Tip-Off to CCU’s HTC Center in wake of Hurricane Maria and the 2018 and 2019 Myrtle Beach Invitational, which is still held here. ESPN Events decided to sign a full agreement to have Myrtle Beach host a bowl game in 2019, and Quigley was hired in early 2020 ahead of the first Myrtle Beach Bowl scheduled in December 2020, like it still is today.

“My two favorite things about my job are the ability to be involved in the community,” says Quigley. “I love the youth clinic and going to visit the teachers. I just think that’s so much fun and such a cool way to give back. And then I love game day and bowl week. It’s just so exciting to work all year and then finally have them here and be able to show the student athletes and the coaches what we’ve been working so hard for to provide them with a great experience in the Myrtle Beach area. And, hopefully, they’ll have fond memories of their time in Myrtle Beach and will come back to visit on their own or bring their own families back.”

Quigley says her team doesn’t waste any time working on the next Myrtle Beach Bowl. Within four weeks of the final score from the previous bowl, they are sitting down with partners CCU and Visit Myrtle Beach to recap with them, hear their feedback, and make lists of what can be improved on next year to plan ahead. More to-dos in her day-to-day include attending the annual industry meeting to gather ideas from other games her team can use, booking hotels for the teams by early summer, coordinating the gifting for student athletes and other VIPs coming into town, recruiting volunteers, constantly meeting with CCU on the operational side, and hosting community events like the free youth clinic and the Extra Yard for Teachers, a program that donates money to Horry County Schools teachers in the fall. The tricky thing is: the teams competing in the Myrtle Beach Bowl are not announced until December 8… and the game is December 23.

“We have a full marketing strategy throughout the year, specifically during football season, but the strategy switches from general football fans in those conferences or drive markets that offer nonstop flights,” says Quigley. “And then on December 8, it really switches to focusing on fans and alumni and students from those two participating institutions, which keeps things interesting. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

For more information on the Myrtle Beach Bowl, visit Myrtlebeachbowgame.com