By Jen Okafor, Staff Reporter
Syracuse University picked a speaker who actually started here. On Thursday April 9, the university announced Mike Tirico as the 2026 commencement speaker. Tirico will address the graduating class at 9:30 a.m. Sunday May 10 inside the JMA Wireless Dome.
Chancellor Kent Syverud framed the pick in the announcement. “Mike is the definition of an Orange success story,” Syverud said. “He began his career right here on campus, and has gone on to become one of the most respected voices in sports broadcasting.”
For Syracuse, this is a homecoming pick. For the roughly 2,000 undergraduate journalism students across the three Newhouse buildings, it is also a reminder of how the path actually works.
The local road Tirico traveled
Tirico was born December 13, 1966 in Queens and grew up there, graduating from Bayside High School. He enrolled at Syracuse in 1984. On campus he landed the first Robert Costas scholarship at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, a recognition Bob Costas ’74 set up for students following the same broadcast path Costas walked from WAER-FM to NBC.
Tirico called his first games on WAER-FM, the Newhouse affiliated student station that launched in 1947 and still broadcasts at 88.1 FM from Newhouse 3. He served as assistant sports director. His later weekly show on the station debuted with Bob Costas and longtime Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim in studio.
While still an undergraduate he took on play by play duties for Syracuse basketball, football, lacrosse, and volleyball on WAER. He also worked at WTVH-TV in Syracuse during school and, upon graduating in 1988 with a dual degree in broadcast journalism from Newhouse and political science from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School, he stayed at WTVH as sports director for four years. That local anchor run is the rung most student broadcasters today skip in their career planning. Tirico has referenced it in past campus visits as the piece that taught him the job.
He joined ESPN in 1991 and stayed for 25 years. He anchored SportsCenter, called Monday Night Football from 2006 through 2015, and was the lead golf voice for the ABC/ESPN package from 1997 through 2015, including the British Open. He also covered the NBA, college football, college basketball, and tennis. In July 2016 he moved to NBC Sports.
At NBC he has been the primetime Olympic host for PyeongChang 2018, Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022, Paris 2024, and Milan Cortina 2026. He replaced Al Michaels as the Sunday Night Football play by play voice in 2022. In February 2026 he called Super Bowl LX and hosted the Winter Olympics in the same year, the first U.S. broadcaster to do so. He also took over as the lead play by play announcer for NBA on NBC when that package returned in fall 2025.
Mike Tirico: The 38 Year Arc
The Newhouse pipeline behind the pick
Tirico is not the first sports voice the Newhouse School has sent to a national stage and will not be the last. Bob Costas ’74, Marv Albert ’63, Dick Stockton ’64, Sean McDonough ’84, Ian Eagle ’90, and Beth Mowins G’90 all came through the same program. Newhouse has turned out enough national sportscasters that Sports Illustrated once called Syracuse an “incubator” for the trade.
The Newhouse School itself opened in 1964 after a $15 million founding gift from publishing magnate Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. Newhouse 1 was designed by I.M. Pei and remains the center of the complex. Newhouse 2 opened in 1974, and Newhouse 3 opened in 2007. Together the three buildings enroll roughly 2,000 undergraduates and close to 400 additional master’s and doctoral students. Mark J. Lodato has been dean since July 2020.
Tirico has given back to that pipeline directly. He and his wife Deborah Gibaratz Tirico ’89 endowed the Mike Tirico Scholarship, supported with additional gifts to WAER, Syracuse Athletics, and the Maxwell, Newhouse, and Whitman schools. He also serves as vice chair of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees, a role he was elected to in 2025 after joining the board in 2016. His honors from the university include the George Arents Award in 2005, the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 1996, the Marty Glickman Award from Newhouse in 2017, and the Dritz Trustee of the Year Award in 2022.
Commencement logistics
The ceremony runs Sunday May 10 at 9:30 a.m. in the JMA Wireless Dome on campus. Graduates must register in advance through the Commencement Office to indicate intent to attend and confirm guest counts. Tickets for guests are distributed based on those confirmations. A full livestream runs on the Syracuse University Commencement website for families and friends unable to attend in person.
The venue first opened in September 1980 as the Carrier Dome. In May 2018 the university announced a $118 million renovation that added a fixed roof (completed September 2020) and the building’s first air conditioning system (online by 2021). On May 19, 2022, Syracuse and Syracuse based JMA Wireless closed a 10 year naming rights deal worth at least $3.25 million a year on Sportico’s open market estimate. Current capacities run 42,784 for football, 33,000 for basketball, and up to 56,250 for concerts. Commencement typically fills the lower and middle bowls plus the field floor.
The graduate procession begins at the Quad and processes to the Dome. Traffic on Comstock, Ostrom, and Van Buren slows significantly during commencement weekend. University Place closes to through traffic. The Commencement Office recommends arriving 90 minutes before the ceremony. Accessible seating is available on the field floor; graduates or guests needing accessible access should contact the Commencement Office at 315-443-2231.
Commencement Day: May 10 Numbers
The context around the pick
Recent Syracuse commencement speakers have leaned heavily toward alumni: Carmelo Anthony in 2025, Florence mayor Dario Nardella in 2024, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala G’70, H’87 in 2023, ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir ’95 in 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul in 2020, Aaron Sorkin in 2012, and Joe Biden as Vice President in 2009. Tirico’s selection extends that pattern and points the spotlight back at a career arc that started in a Syracuse broadcasting room.
Syverud, who became the university’s 12th chancellor in January 2014, disclosed a brain cancer diagnosis on April 15 and has since handed day to day leadership to incoming chancellor Mike Haynie. He had been named University of Michigan president-elect in January 2026 but will not take that post. His Syracuse tenure ends on commencement day itself.
The Daily Orange, the independent student paper, published a letter to the editor questioning the pick over past sexual harassment allegations against Tirico from his ESPN days. ESPN suspended him for three months in 1992 following an internal review; multiple misconduct accounts were reported at the time. Tirico has publicly addressed the episode in interviews over the years. The university has not issued a separate response on the letter.
WAER, the station that gave Tirico his first microphone, is still broadcasting from Newhouse 3. Students still pull shifts on Syracuse football and basketball broadcasts. That is the line Syverud’s quote was drawing: Tirico’s 1988 walk across the same Dome floor is one graduating students can actually imagine.
Recent Syracuse Commencement Speakers
What Dome visitors should plan for
Traffic on Comstock, Ostrom, and Van Buren slows significantly during commencement weekend. University Place closes to through traffic on Sunday morning. The Commencement Office recommends arriving 90 minutes before the ceremony. Accessible seating is available on the field floor; graduates or guests needing accessible access should contact the Commencement Office at 315-443-2231.
For residents on the Hill, Eastside, and along Westcott Street: plan around University Place closures on Sunday morning. For everyone else in Central New York: one of the country’s most recognized sports broadcasters is coming back to Syracuse for a morning.
Sources: Syracuse University News (April 9, 2026 announcement), Newhouse School, Syracuse University Board of Trustees officer biography, NBC Sports press box bio, WAER-FM Wall of Fame listing, The Daily Orange, Sportico naming rights coverage, Syracuse University Commencement Office, Wikipedia entries on Mike Tirico, the JMA Wireless Dome, and Kent Syverud.
