UW-Green Bay Chancellor appointed to influential NCAA committee
Gary L. Miller, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, has been appointed a member of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions. He will begin his three-year term Aug. 1, 2015.
Miller is the first sitting Division I president or chancellor to serve on the committee, the NCAA has confirmed.
“I consider it a great honor to be chosen to serve in this capacity,” Miller said. “I am a firm believer in the value of Division I athletics to UW-Green Bay, the NCAA’s mission as an organization, and our shared duty as member institutions to help ensure academic and competitive integrity.”
The Division I Committee on Infractions is an independent group composed of representatives from the membership and the public charged with deciding NCAA infractions cases. The committee reviews prehearing procedural matters, conducts hearings, finds the facts of the case, and determines what, if any, penalties are appropriate. After it issues a decision, the committee monitors institutions on probation to ensure compliance with penalties and terms of probation. The committee also hears appeals of Level III decisions issued by NCAA staff.
Miller’s appointment as a current chancellor reflects the NCAA’s ongoing, stated efforts to increase presidential involvement in all facets of the NCAA governance structure.
Since 2011 the NCAA has gradually expanded the committee from 10 to 24 members. Previously regarded as one of the NCAA’s more time-intensive assignments — which tended to discourage top administrators from volunteering — the committee can now use its larger size to create panels of five to seven randomly-chosen members. The change allows cases to be heard more quickly and efficiently with fewer burdens on individual committee members.
Members serve three-year terms and can be reappointed for a maximum of three terms. In addition to participating in those cases assigned them, members convene as the full Committee on Infractions at least twice annually to review cases across panels and check for consistency in the way NCAA guidelines are applied.
Jon LeCrone, who heads the intercollegiate athletics conference that includes UW-Green Bay, describes Miller’s appointment as prestigious recognition for the chancellor, the University, Green Bay Athletics and the league.
“We are thrilled for Chancellor Miller’s appointment to the NCAA Infractions Committee,” says LeCrone, Horizon League commissioner. “Since arriving at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, he has been an excellent addition to our Board of Directors, working on behalf of Green Bay and the Horizon League’s student-athletes. I know that he will represent Green Bay and the Horizon League well on the committee.”
The committee chair is Gregory Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. Other prominent members include Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky; Michael F. Adams, former president of the University of Georgia, former University of Minnesota athletics director Joel Maturi; and former Georgia Tech basketball coach Bobby Cremins. Nominations to serve come from the NCAA membership and include academic and athletics administrators past and present, independent professionals with relevant legal, athletics or academic experience, and former coaches.
Miller, who assumed his duties as UW-Green Bay chancellor on Aug. 1, 2014, has extensive career experience as an administrator and educator, all with NCAA Division I universities.
He came to Green Bay from the chancellorship at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He was previously provost and vice president for academic affairs and research at Wichita State University, Dean of the College of Pacific at the University of the Pacific, and a faculty member at both Weber State University and Mississippi State University.
The chancellor serves on the local board of directors of the Greater Green Bay Chamber, as well as on the Executive Committee of the Council of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, the Board of Directors of The Campus Compact, the Workforce Development Panel of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), and a national steering committee focused on post-collegiate outcomes.
Miller’s appointment to the infractions committee is UW-Green Bay’s second high-profile NCAA appointment this summer. Director of Athletics Mary Ellen Gillespie was notified earlier this year she will become the first individual from any Horizon League school to serve on the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, starting Sept. 1.
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