SMU Athletics

Chris Smith enters his third year as the Director of Public Relations with the Mustangs in 2025, where he serves as the primary contact for the Football program.

Smith was a part of a historic season in 2024 for the football team, the first in the ACC for SMU, as the Mustangs went undefeated in conference play for a second straight year and made an appearance in the ACC Championship and their inaugural debut in the College Football Playoff (CFP).

He coordinated and handled the media responsibilities of Head Coach Rhett Lashlee on local, regional, and national levels along with several student-athletes on the team. The season saw the Mustangs reach as high as seventh in the Coaches Poll and eighth in the AP Poll in the regular season while finishing 10th in the CFP rankings. 

In his first season on the Hilltop, Smith promoted the Mustang Football program that captured its first conference championship since 1984 and finished ranked 22nd in the Associated Press Poll, the first time it has finished in the final poll since 1984. 

Smith also helped oversee the media responsibilities and duties in the public relations office during the transition from the American Athletic Conference (AAC) to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) from the 2023-24 year to the 2024-25 season. 

He also joined the Dallas Mavericks Gameday staff during the 2023-24 season, helping with various duties such as providing statistical support for visiting radio and postgame quotes for either home or visiting teams. 
 
Before coming to the Hilltop in 2023, he spent the previous eight years at the University of Denver, where he handled the day-to-day media relations and publicity operations for the Men’s Basketball, Volleyball, and Men's and Women's Golf programs. He has also covered the Women’s Basketball, Skiing, and both Swim and Diving teams during his time in the Mile High City.

At DU, Smith was part of an athletic communications team that hosted two NCAA Men’s Hockey Regionals in Loveland, Colo. (2021, 2022) and the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship (2022) in Magness Arena.

Smith had primary oversight of social media platforms for Men’s Basketball, Volleyball, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Golf, Women’s Golf, Men’s & Women’s Swimming and Diving during his time at Denver. He also worked as Media Operations for the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first and second-round games in Denver at Ball Arena. 

While the secondary contact for Men’s Hockey at the 2022 Frozen Four and ran social media that generated 15.1 million impressions, 1.28 million views on social media, and added an estimated 27.5 million dollars in ad value for the program as it captured its ninth national championship. 

The Lakewood, Colo. native was promoted to Men’s Basketball in the fall of 2016 after his intern year covering the Women’s Basketball team. He helped generate content for the Pioneers on all social media platforms. Smith also was in charge of the creation of digital content and promotion of key players and coaches.

In the fall of 2021, he oversaw the development of the Denver Athletics & Recreation sports app that was used to help better promote teams and information to fans on their mobile phones. 

In 2021, Smith was the primary contact for the Pioneer Skiing team that featured a national champion in Amelia Smart and several other student-athletes earning All-American honors after the team recorded a top-three finish at the NCAA Championships. 

He was added to the Summit League Hall of Fame Selection Committee in the spring of 2020. 

Prior to coming to DU, Smith spent two years at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D.  There he was the primary contact for Women’s Soccer, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Golf, and Baseball. He also assisted with numerous other sports such as Football, Cross Country, Men’s Basketball, and Wrestling. 

Smith covered the Wrestling team in 2015 at the Division II NCAA Championships in St. Louis. He also developed new content on both social media and the website for all 18 varsity sports for Augustana University.

Before working at Augustana, the Denver native spent four seasons working in the media relations department of the Denver Nuggets. While there, he was a media liaison for the radio personalities of both the home and away teams. Other duties included: assisting with pre- and post-game notes, doing pre- and post-game interviews with players and coaches from both teams, being a correspondent for Nuggets.com, and writing pre-draft bios and previews along with regular-season stories.

Smith graduated from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2008 with degrees in Psychology and Communications.