Wake Forest's Ron Wellman named to NCAA Men's Basketball Committee
Deacon AD to assist in selection of tournament teams

Feb. 20, 2009

Wake Forest University Director of Athletics Ron Wellman today was appointed to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee. Wellman was one of three athletic administrators named to the committee, joining Big 12 Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe and Big Sky Conference commissioner Doug Fullerton.

The three new committee members will begin their tenure on the committee on September 1, 2009.

Wellman has been the director of athletics at Wake Forest since 1992, and has seen Deacon athletic teams rise to national prominence in several sports during his tenure with four national championships. He is a graduate of Bowling Green State University where he was a pitcher on the baseball team. After earning a master's degree from Bowling Green, Wellman joined the faculty and basketball, football and baseball coaching staffs at Elmhurst College in 1971. In 1977, he became the school's director of athletics, serving in that role until being named head baseball coach at Northwestern University in 1981.

Wellman began devoting his energies to athletics administration on a fulltime basis in 1986 when he was named director of athletics at Mankato State University. A year later, he was named to the same position at Illinois State University, where he remained until moving on to Wake Forest.

Fullerton is in his 14th year as commissioner of the Big Sky Conference, taking over that position in 1995 after 11 years as director of athletics at Montana State University. Beebe has been with the Big 12 Conference since 2003, first serving as senior associate commissioner and chief financial officer for the league before being named commissioner in 2007.

The 10-member committee consists of athletics directors and commissioners of Division I member institutions and conferences and oversees administration of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, including the selection, seeding and bracketing of teams for the tournament. The committee is the primary NCAA contact with CBS Sports, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and other key basketball organizations. Committee members oversee selected preliminary round sites, as well as the Final Four, and assign officiating crews for each game of the championship. The committee also serves as stewards for the good of the game, monitoring and taking action as appropriate regarding issues affecting college basketball

Current committee members include chair Mike Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference; Mike Bobinski, director of athletics at Xavier University; Dan Guerrero, director of athletics at UCLA; Jeff Hathaway, director of athletics at the University of Connecticut; Lynn Hickey, director of athletics at the University of Texas-San Antonio; Chris Hill, director of athletics at the University of Utah; Laing Kennedy, director of athletics at Kent State University; Stan Morrison, director of athletics at the University of California-Riverside; Tom O'Connor, director of athletics at George Mason University; and Gene Smith, director of athletics at Ohio State University.

Wellman, Fullerton and Beebe will replace Hill, Slive and O'Connor, whose terms expire September 1. Guerrero will be chair of the committee for the 2009-10 academic year.

"Ron, Doug and Dan bring tremendous experience and basketball knowledge to the committee," said Tom Jernstedt, executive vice president of the NCAA. "It is rare to have to find successors to three members in a single academic year. Such a change to the makeup of the committee requires careful thought, and we are pleased our membership will be represented by individuals who understand the important place college basketball has on the landscape of intercollegiate athletics."