Daleville’s hometown digital superstar heads to the ACC

Daleville native Eric SanInocencio has been a superstar in the digital sports media world for quite some time, and now he is heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference to become the league’s first Associate Commissioner for Strategic Digital Media.

SanInocencio – who got his start in media as an intern with The Southeast Sun/Daleville Sun-Courier while attending Daleville High School – has spent the last six years in the National Football League with the Houston Texans as the team’s Digital Media Manager.

His team with the Texans earned the 2017 Shorty Social Good Award for their Texans Care Program.

SanInocencio said that when he began working in digital media that the NFL was his ultimate goal as he had never felt a connection to college sports like so many in this area do growing up.

“It had been my dream to work in the professional ranks because that’s what I grew up following,” he said. “In the back of my mind I wasn’t as connected to those college teams.

“When I went (to the NFL) it was fantastic and a good experience but there just seems to be something a bit more special about how college sports works.”

Before going to the NFL, SanInocencio had spent several years working in the college ranks, first as the Associate Media Relations Director at UAB and then as the Sports Information Director for the Gulf South Conference (GSC) and then the Digital Media Manager for the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

“Professional sports are a bit more transactional,” SanInocencio continued. “When your team is winning, everything is fantastic and they love you, but when you lose you get the reverse side of that.

“With college, Alabama (football) fans and North Carolina (basketball) fans want their teams to win, but even when they lose there still is an emotional connection with their teams and they’re proud of that and proud of their teams. Being able to tap into that passion is very special.”

That passion is what led to SanInocencio accepted the ACC’s offer for him to return to the college ranks.

“I think conference offices have a unique opportunity to get to tell so many different stories over multiple member institutions and multiple sports,” he said. “(This) was a chance to get back to the connection that people have at the college level with their universities and be able to tell a wider array of stories. I had a fantastic run in the NFL but I think I was looking for an opportunity to expand a little bit more.”

SanInocencio will be the ACC’s very first Associate Commissioner for Strategic Digital Media as the league gears up for the launch of the ACC Network in partnership with ESPN later this year.

“It’s very rare in sports to be able to come into a position that’s never existed before,” SanInocencio emphasized. “This is a brand new position for the league and I’ve really spent my first couple of weeks just trying to wrap my arms around all these different opportunities and platforms we have here.

“The ACC has the network launching on Aug. 22 with ESPN and there’s the digital properties and so much untapped potential for what digital content could mean (for the league).

“My goal is to maximize the ability to tell all those stories we want to tell but also plot the right way to do it and build a process that we feel good about what we’re trying to do.”