A third of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee will be made up of first-year members after four administrators were appointed to the group Wednesday. Notre Dame Athletics Director Pete Bevacqua, Ole Miss Athletics Director Keith Carter, Missouri Valley Conference Commissioner Jeff Jackson and Northwestern Athletics Director Mark Jackson will begin their terms later this year.
They will replace Sun Belt Conference Commissioner and current committee Chair Keith Gill, Alabama Athletics Director Greg Byrne and Minnesota Athletics Director Mark Coyle, whose terms expire at the end of August, as well as Syracuse Athletics Director John Wildhack, who is retiring from the university July 1.
Bevacqua will be Wildhack's replacement as the Atlantic Coast Conference representative. Bevacqua, who will serve a four-year term, will officially join the committee July 1, while the others will have five-year terms that start Sept. 1.
Bevacqua, who is a 1993 graduate of Notre Dame, returned to campus in July 2023 as a special assistant to the president before being named director of athletics in March 2024. Before that, Bevacqua served as chair of NBC Sports, leading to its unprecedented collection of assets and platforms, and was the network's chief steward of exclusive broadcast rights agreement with Notre Dame football.
He previously served as chief executive officer of the PGA of America, global head of golf at Creative Artists Agency, chief business officer for the United States Golf Association and first managing director of the U.S. Open Championship. Bevacqua is also the eighth person to serve on the committee and the College Football Playoff management team.
Notre Dame Athletics Director Pete Bevacqua
Ole Miss Athletics Director Keith Carter
Missouri Valley Conference Commissioner Jeff Jackson
Northwestern Athletics Director Mark Jackson
The Southeastern Conference will be represented by Carter, the Ole Miss athletics director. The Perryville, Arkansas, native has been a part of the Ole Miss community since enrolling as a freshman in 1995. A four-year starter for the Rebels basketball team, Carter led the squad to a pair of SEC Western Division titles in 1997 and 1998 while earning all-conference honors twice and garnering All-America honors following his senior season in 1999. He also played in the 1997, 1998 and 1999 NCAA tournaments, scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in a loss to Valparaiso in the famous 1998 first-round game, and then recording 18 points and seven rebounds in a win over Villanova a year later.
Carter won a gold medal as a member of the United States national team at the 1998 Goodwill Games and also played professionally in Italy for seven years. He joined the Ole Miss Foundation in 2008 and then the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation in 2009. After three years, he was named executive director. By 2018, he was the school's deputy athletics director for development and resource acquisition, overseeing the Athletics Foundation while also serving as chief revenue officer and as the sport administrator for baseball and men's basketball. A year later, he moved to his current role, where his tenure has seen the Ole Miss athletics department reach unprecedented heights that include the school's three best finishes in the Learfield Directors' Cup.
Missouri Valley Conference Commissioner Jeff Jackson was also appointed to the committee. Jackson has extensive basketball experience, having spent 30 years coaching, including seven years as a head coach at Furman and three more in the head position at New Hampshire. He also served as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt for seven seasons, helping the Commodores reach the Sweet 16 in 2004, and had stops at Stanford, Colorado State and St. Bonaventure.
The 1984 Cornell graduate has been at the Missouri Valley since 2021. Before that, he spent three years as the executive associate commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, which included having oversight of men's basketball and game management, coordinating the conference's postseason tournament, and working with the league's coaches, administrators and officials. He previously spent four years as deputy commissioner of the Big South Conference, overseeing external operations, championships and sports administration, with a primary focus on men's and women's basketball. Jackson was also responsible for the league's strategic plan and assisted with branding efforts and broadcast matters.
The Big Ten Conference's representative will be Mark Jackson, the director of athletics at Northwestern. Jackson had a brief stint on the committee in 2024 when he was athletics director at Villanova and was appointed by the Big East Conference to replace former Butler Athletics Director Barry Collier, who retired soon after the 2024 Men's Final Four. However, Jackson accepted his current role that September, ending his short tenure.
Jackson held positions at Southern California (senior associate director of athletics and chief innovation officer) and Syracuse (executive senior associate athletics director) before going to Villanova in 2015. While he was at Villanova, the Wildcats captured the Division I men's basketball national championship in 2016 and 2018. A native of Boston, Jackson played defensive back on the football team at Colby and received his bachelor's degree in 1995. He earned a master's degree from Trinity (Connecticut) in 1997. He also worked as a coaching assistant for the New England Patriots and as director of football development for the Oakland Raiders.
Jackson oversees 21 varsity sports with more than 500 student-athletes, plus recreational and intramural programs at Northwestern. In his two years at the school, the Wildcats won national championships in field hockey (2024, 2025) and women's golf (2025) and last month captured the women's lacrosse national title.
The 12-member committee will be the first to select, seed and bracket a 76-team field. The NCAA last month announced the expansion of the tournament from 68 teams to 76 starting in 2027. The new members will be joined by Irma Garcia, the director of athletics at Manhattan; Stu Jackson, the commissioner of the West Coast Conference; Arthur Johnson, the director of athletics at Temple; Zack Lassiter, the director of athletics at Abilene Christian; Martin Newton, the director of athletics at Samford; Lee Reed, the director of athletics at Georgetown; Chad Weiberg, the director of athletics at Oklahoma State; and Tom Wistrcill, the commissioner of the Big Sky Conference. Newton will chair the committee for the 2026-27 season.
