Whoa! Beauchamp Named to NCAA Board of Directors

[Stonehouse]

Wow... I missed this story yesterday:

University of Portland president Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., appointed to NCAA Division I Board of Directors

University of Portland president Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, along with F. Ann Millner, president of Weber State, and David Schmidly, president of New Mexico.

The Board of Directors consists of 18 university presidents or chancellors who approve legislation on behalf of the entire Division I membership. All three appointees will begin their tenure on the board in April 2008.

Beauchamp was named the 19th president of the University of Portland in Nov. 2003 after serving as the institution’s senior vice president for 14 months. Prior to that, he served the University of Notre Dame for more than 20 years, including 13 as executive vice president and two as special assistant to the president.

Beauchamp earned baccalaureate and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Detroit Mercy, and a juris doctorate degree from the Notre Dame Law School. He taught both law and accounting while at Notre Dame.

Beauchamp also earned a master of divinity degree from Notre Dame and was ordained as a Catholic Priest of the Holy Cross order in 1982. He received an honorary doctorate from The University of Notre Dame Australia in 2005.

This is big. Really big. This has to be really good for our school and our conference, even if it's just for the connections and recognition that it will bring about with all the big wigs.

Congrats to Fr. Beauchamp!

[PilotNut]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

This is a huge honor, and I agree with the connections, etc. It also is a big pronouncement put out there to everyone (athletes, prospective students and recruits) that UP is taking athletics very seriously, we are big time, and we wont be going anywhere anytime soon.

Great news!!!!

[Stonehouse]

Here is the current roster of the Board:

http://web1.ncaa.org/committees/committees_roster.jsp?CommitteeName=BOARD

Interesting that they break down the divisions by football... I wonder what the most important thing in the NCAA is?

Anyway... this is very cool, and it looks like it's at least a four year appointment.

[Geezaldinho]

In a lot of committees the ratio for different segments is fixed, but apparently here it isn't. There are no people giving up their seats from the D1 list.

[PurplePrideTrumpet]

Approving legislation, hmmm? I wonder how Fr. Beauchamp feels about higher-seeded teams in certain sports having to travel for their postseason games....As we learned here this season the rules are made by bodies higher up than the sports committees.

Seriously though, this is great news for athletics and UP as a whole. Congratulations and good luck to Fr. Beauchamp.