INDIANAPOLIS-- Butler University Director of Athletics Barry Collier and Missouri Valley Conference Commissioner Doug Elgin each will begin four-year terms on the National Invitation Tournament Committee as the NIT LLC restructures the committee makeup beginning with the 2015-16 men’s basketball season.
C.M. Newton, who has provided leadership as chair of the NIT Committee since its inception in 2006, will now serve as chair emeritus. Reggie Minton will serve as the NIT Committee chair for the 2015-16 season.
Beginning with the 2015-16 season, NIT Committee members will serve a maximum four-year term, and the committee will feature a mix of current athletics administrators who are actively working at NCAA schools or conferences and former head college basketball coaches.
Previously, the NIT Committee had been comprised of eight members, all of whom had been former head college basketball coaches or athletics directors. The previous structure had no term limits or succession plan.
Collier and Elgin make up two of the eight-member committee. The 2015-16 NIT Committee members are:
- Barry Collier – Director of athletics at Butler and former head men’s basketball coach at Butler and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
- Rudy Davalos – Former director of athletics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Houston and the University of New Mexico.
- Doug Elgin – Commissioner of the Missouri Valley Conference.
- Reggie Minton – Former head men’s basketball coach at Dartmouth College and U.S. Air Force Academy and current deputy executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
- Jack Powers – Former head men’s basketball coach and director of athletics at Manhattan College and former executive director of the NIT.
- Les Robinson – Former head men’s basketball coach and director of athletics at The Citadel, East Tennessee State University and North Carolina State University.
- Bob Weltlich – Former head men’s basketball coach at the University of Mississippi, the University of Texas at Austin, Florida International University and the University of South Alabama.
- Carroll Williams – Former head men’s basketball coach and director of athletics at Santa Clara University.
Davalos, Elgin, Robinson and Williams have all previously served on the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.
The NIT Committee is responsible for the selection, seeding and bracketing of the 32-team postseason championship.
The 2016 National Invitation Tournament starts March 15 at campus sites. The NIT semifinals and championship game will be held March 29 and 31 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
