Kevin White named to NCAA Division I men's basketball committee

Duke Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White will join the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee, the NCAA announced in a press release Thursday.

White will serve a five-year term on the committee beginning in September.

The committee has several responsibilities, most notably the selection of teams to the NCAA tournament field at the conclusion of conference tournaments on Selection Sunday. The 10-member committee is also tasked with determining the administrative infrastructure of the three-week event, such as selecting game officials and future event sites.

“To be sure, I am incredibly honored to become a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. This group is tasked with very important work for the membership and is ultimately responsible for managing one of the truly outstanding events in all of sport each year,” White said in the release. “Certainly, I look forward to working with my esteemed colleagues, whereby continuing to build upon the unparalleled tradition that makes the NCAA Tournament historically significant and unequivocally captures the attention of an entire nation for three weeks in March and April.”

By committee rules, White must leave the room when it comes time to seed the Blue Devils on Selection Sunday. In another potential conflict of interest, White's son, Michael, is currently the head basketball coach at Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs are 18-6 on the year and currently sit in a three-way tie atop the Conference USA standings.

Jim Schaus, the director of athletics at Ohio University and a former member of the basketball rules committee, will also join the committee. White and Schaus begin their terms Sept. 1, when they will replace Utah State vice president and director of athletics Scott Barnes—this year's committee chairman—and Conference USA Executive Associate Commissioner Judy MacLeod.

Former Duke athletic director Joe Alleva—White's predecessor and the current director of athletics at LSU—is also a member of the committee.