NCAA names Brand new president

Posted 6:41AM on Friday 11th October 2002 ( 22 years ago )

INDIANAPOLIS - Unless they attended Indiana, most people were more likely to remember Myles Brand as the man who fired Bob Knight than as the president of a major university. That changed Thursday when the NCAA named Brand its new president and chief executive, ending a seven-month search for a new leader. Brand, 60, is the first university president to be named to the top spot at the NCAA. He will assume his new job Jan. 1 and his contract will run through 2007. Choosing a university president sends a message that the NCAA is interested in the academic success of athletes, said Robert Lawless, chairman of the NCAA Executive Committee and president of the University of Tulsa. ``I look forward to a very productive time at the NCAA,'' Brand said. ``A lot of good activity is already in place, but I also look forward to being a change agent.'' Brand served as IU president since 1994. Change is a subject on the mind of the NCAA's members. In April, the NCAA Board of Directors adopted reforms aimed at curtailing the trend of student athletes forgoing college or leaving school early to play professional sports. Brand, who gained national attention in September 2000 when he fired Knight as Indiana's coach, gave a speech to the National Press Club a few months later calling for wide reforms of college athletics. In his speech, Brand urged ``academics first'' solutions, led by college presidents, to the problems of overcommercialization, poor graduation rates and questionable academic standards used for athletes. Brand also suggested limiting the dates and times games can be played, the number of television timeouts and the amount of advertising permitted in a college arena, including on uniforms. ``Myles is very supportive of highly competitive athletics and making sure that students are students first. I think that's something that Dr. Brand talked to me about several times,'' IU athletic director Mike McNeely said. Brand will succeed Cedric W. Dempsey, who announced in January that he would retire after his term is up at the end of this year. Dempsey has led the NCAA since 1994. During his tenure, the title was changed from executive director to president to reflect the NCAA's direction. The NCAA interviewed 11 candidates for the position. Brand was one of three finalists interviewed Thursday by the NCAA Executive Committee. The NCAA did not disclose the identities of the other two finalists but said at least one was a minority. The decision was unanimous, Lawless said. The NCAA said there were 118 candidates for the position. Lawless said the search committee did not make a recommendation to the executive committee among the finalists. Brand went to Indiana from the University of Oregon, where he was president from 1989-94. At Indiana, Brand has served as chief executive of a Big Ten Conference school with eight campuses, nearly 100,000 students, 17,000 employees and a budget of $3.4 billion. He was chairman of the board of directors of the Association of American Universities and served on the board of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.

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