Ordinal Sports Group Names James Holland Senior Consultant
September 1, 2026
Ordinal Sports Group is pleased to announce the addition of James Holland as Senior Consultant, bringing more than four decades of experience in college basketball and a unique perspective developed as a conference administrator, Division I coach, NBA scout and student-athlete.
Holland most recently served as Senior Associate Commissioner for the Big South Conference, where he was a member of the conference’s senior leadership team and played a key role in the league’s basketball operations. He oversaw men’s basketball, the conference’s basketball championships and officiating alliance while working closely with presidents, athletics directors, coaches and other campus administrators on basketball issues and conference initiatives. Holland also worked with ESPN on the selection of the conference’s linear television games, helping increase the Big South’s annual ESPNU package from four games to six during his first year and securing the first linear broadcast of the Big South women’s basketball championship game on ESPNU in 2022. He also helped carry out the Big South’s strategic plan and created the Big South Freshmen Basketball Academy to help first year men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes transition to Division I. His time with the Big South gave him firsthand experience with the challenges conferences and their member institutions face and the practical considerations that go into developing and implementing solutions.
Prior to joining the Big South in 2018, Holland spent more than three decades in coaching, including six seasons at Western Michigan. During his time with the Broncos, Western Michigan won three MAC West titles, highlighted by the 2013-14 team that captured the MAC regular season and tournament championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Over the course of his coaching career, Holland helped teams win conference championships in four different leagues and was part of six NCAA Tournament teams and three NIT teams. His coaching stops also included Alabama, UTEP, Georgia, San Diego State, South Carolina, Murray State, UNC Asheville and USC Upstate. He also served as the Southeast Regional Scout for the NBA’s Washington Wizards.
As a player at USC Upstate, Holland was a four year starter, three year team captain and member of the program’s 1982 NAIA National Championship team. He finished his career as the school’s all time assists leader and was inducted into the USC Upstate Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. Holland was inducted a second time in 2023 as a member of the 1982 NAIA National Championship team. Following his collegiate career, Holland played one season with the Harlem Globetrotters.
In his role with Ordinal Sports Group, Holland will work with conferences and institutions on basketball scheduling, competitive strategy, championship planning, program evaluation and other strategic basketball initiatives. His experience as both a coach and conference administrator gives him a valuable perspective on how decisions made at the conference level affect coaches, programs and student-athletes.
Holland’s addition will allow Ordinal Sports Group to pair data driven analysis with practical basketball experience.
“James brings a perspective that is difficult to find,” said Matt Parke, Managing Director of Ordinal Sports Group. “He has spent decades as a coach and the last eight years working in a conference office, so he understands the challenges from both sides. His experience, combined with the data and scheduling work we already do, will help us provide conferences with practical solutions to the issues they are facing in college athletics today.”
“I’m excited to join Ordinal Sports Group and have the opportunity to continue working with conferences, administrators and coaches,” Holland said. “I’ve spent my career looking at college basketball from a number of different perspectives, and I look forward to using those experiences to help conferences and institutions work through the challenges they face.”
About Ordinal Sports Group
Ordinal Sports Group is a collegiate athletics consulting firm providing conferences and institutions with data-driven analysis, strategic planning and operational support. With particular expertise in basketball scheduling and competitive analysis, Ordinal develops practical solutions to the challenges facing college athletics.