Wildhack Appointed to NCAA DI Men's Basketball Committee
5/2/2025 11:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, General
Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack '80 has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee.
Wildhack replaces North Carolina Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham, whose term expired after serving as the chair of the committee this past tournament, as the Atlantic Coast Conference's representative. His term will officially begin on Sept. 1, 2025 and will end in 2030.
"It's a privilege to represent Syracuse University and the Atlantic Coast Conference on the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee," Wildhack said. "I'm thankful to Commissioner (Jim) Phillips for nominating me. The NCAA tournament is one of the great sporting events in the world. I look forward and am honored to work with (NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball) Dan Gavitt, the NCAA staff and my fellow committee members."
Wildhack has served as the leader of Syracuse Athletics since July, 2016, leading Orange programs to success both on and off the field. In his nearly nine years at the helm, 'Cuse has won three NCAA Championships (one team, two individual), 25 conference titles (eight team, 17 individual), and 87 teams have reached NCAA Championship competition.
He has also overseen numerous major advancements to Syracuse's facilities, including the two major additions to the John A. Lally Athletics Complex, most recently the Football Performance Center, which opened last month, a multi-phase renovation and naming rights agreement for the JMA Wireless Dome, among other projects.
"John has long been a passionate and influential voice for college basketball and will bring insight, experience and energy to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee," said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. "From his impactful leadership at Syracuse to his broader contributions throughout his entire career in sports, John has continually exemplified excellence. He succeeds Bubba Cunningham whose five years of service - including last year as the chair - have been invaluable and we thank him for his outstanding leadership."
'Cuse student-athletes have also performed at record-setting levels in the classroom. This fall, the combined GPA across all student-athletes was a 3.324, setting a new fall semester record. Seventy-one percent of student-athletes achieved above a 3.0 and 45 received perfect a perfect 4.0. Four-or-more programs have received a perfect NCAA Academic Progress Rate score for six-straight years and the athletic department cumulative GPA has been above a 3.0 for seven-straight years.
Wildhack also served as an instrumental leader in the completion of the 2020-21 athletic season, navigating Syracuse and the ACC through the COVID pandemic. He has also previously served as the chair of ACC Athletic Directors.
Prior to his time at Syracuse, Wildhack had a more than 30-year distinguished career at ESPN. He held a number of leadership roles in his time with the network and was responsible for several firsts including: producing ESPN's first live regular-season college football game and its first live NFL game. Wildhack most recently served as ESPN's Executive Vice President for programming and production, where he was responsible for all of ESPN and ABC's game, event and studio production work for domestic and international television and radio, as well as all programming acquisitions, rights-holder relationship management and scheduling. He managed all league and conference relationships, negotiated all live sports television rights and was responsible for 50,000 hours of on-air content annually.
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Wildhack replaces North Carolina Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham, whose term expired after serving as the chair of the committee this past tournament, as the Atlantic Coast Conference's representative. His term will officially begin on Sept. 1, 2025 and will end in 2030.
"It's a privilege to represent Syracuse University and the Atlantic Coast Conference on the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee," Wildhack said. "I'm thankful to Commissioner (Jim) Phillips for nominating me. The NCAA tournament is one of the great sporting events in the world. I look forward and am honored to work with (NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball) Dan Gavitt, the NCAA staff and my fellow committee members."
Wildhack has served as the leader of Syracuse Athletics since July, 2016, leading Orange programs to success both on and off the field. In his nearly nine years at the helm, 'Cuse has won three NCAA Championships (one team, two individual), 25 conference titles (eight team, 17 individual), and 87 teams have reached NCAA Championship competition.
He has also overseen numerous major advancements to Syracuse's facilities, including the two major additions to the John A. Lally Athletics Complex, most recently the Football Performance Center, which opened last month, a multi-phase renovation and naming rights agreement for the JMA Wireless Dome, among other projects.
"John has long been a passionate and influential voice for college basketball and will bring insight, experience and energy to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee," said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. "From his impactful leadership at Syracuse to his broader contributions throughout his entire career in sports, John has continually exemplified excellence. He succeeds Bubba Cunningham whose five years of service - including last year as the chair - have been invaluable and we thank him for his outstanding leadership."
'Cuse student-athletes have also performed at record-setting levels in the classroom. This fall, the combined GPA across all student-athletes was a 3.324, setting a new fall semester record. Seventy-one percent of student-athletes achieved above a 3.0 and 45 received perfect a perfect 4.0. Four-or-more programs have received a perfect NCAA Academic Progress Rate score for six-straight years and the athletic department cumulative GPA has been above a 3.0 for seven-straight years.
Wildhack also served as an instrumental leader in the completion of the 2020-21 athletic season, navigating Syracuse and the ACC through the COVID pandemic. He has also previously served as the chair of ACC Athletic Directors.
Prior to his time at Syracuse, Wildhack had a more than 30-year distinguished career at ESPN. He held a number of leadership roles in his time with the network and was responsible for several firsts including: producing ESPN's first live regular-season college football game and its first live NFL game. Wildhack most recently served as ESPN's Executive Vice President for programming and production, where he was responsible for all of ESPN and ABC's game, event and studio production work for domestic and international television and radio, as well as all programming acquisitions, rights-holder relationship management and scheduling. He managed all league and conference relationships, negotiated all live sports television rights and was responsible for 50,000 hours of on-air content annually.
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