INDIANAPOLIS---Mike Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, has been appointed chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee for the 2008-09 academic year.

Slive’s term will begin September 1, 2008, following formal approval by the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet in early 2008. He will replace current chair Tom O’Connor, assistant vice president and director of athletics at George Mason University.

Slive, who has served on the men’s basketball committee since 2004, has an extensive background in athletics administration and NCAA committees. The Utica, N.Y. native has worked as assistant director of athletics at Dartmouth College (1968-69); assistant executive director of the Pacific-10 Conference (1979-81); director of athletics at Cornell University (1981-83); and commissioner of the Great Midwest Conference (1991-95).

He was named the first-ever commissioner of Conference USA in 1995, a position he held until 2002, when he joined the SEC.

NCAA committees on which Slive has served include the Infractions Appeals Committee (1993-2002), the National Letter of Intent Appeals Committee (1993-2002), the Management Council (1997-2004), and the Division I Men’s Basketball Academic Enhancement Group (2007-present). He is also the current coordinator of the Bowl Championship Series.

“I am honored to have been appointed chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee for 2008-09,” said Slive. “I look forward to being part of the committee’s continuing work to promote and improve the great game of college basketball.”

Slive graduated from Dartmouth with a bachelor of arts degree in 1962. He earned a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1965 and a master of laws degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1966. Slive and his wife, Elizabeth, are the parents of a daughter, Anna, who served as executive director of the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee for the 2007 Men’s Final Four.

“Mike’s experience makes him an ideal chair of the committee,” said Tom Jernstedt, Executive Vice President of the NCAA. “He has served the membership with utmost integrity. This committee has been fortunate to have been led by many with vision and dignity; we are pleased that will continue moving forward.”