There are increasing concerns about the educational experiences of Division I student-athletes in big-time college sports. Calls for reform have come from within colleges and universities and beyond. The literature of innovative management offers ideas that can help mitigate the academic and athletic divide and offer new ideas for athletic departments. Specifically, this body of literature is placed within the context of academic support centers for student-athletes to underscore the importance of new ways of thinking and to shed light on the centrality of the champion in the successful implementation of innovation. The article also introduces the Career Transition Scorecard, a practitioner-as-researcher model that fosters evidence-based practices among practitioners in athletic departments as they improve the well-being of Division I student-athletes. Implications for stakeholder management in college sports are discussed.