SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland made history with his appointment as chairman of the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee.
HBCU Sports spoke with McClelland about his ascension within the ranks of the NCAA and his experience in that role. He also discussed how the SWAC and HBCU basketball can improve their March Madness seedings and what’s ahead for the SWAC basketball tournament.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
BK: Could you talk about how you became part of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and what it means to be the first HBCU athletic leader in that position?
CM: So you have to be nominated amongst the membership to be on the committee from a national pool, and then you have to be voted in. So, the basketball community gives the opportunity to weigh in. The men’s basketball oversight committee weighs in [and then] it goes to the nominating committee, which, again, is a national NCAA committee. Ultimately, I was voted in through the organizational structure to the Division 1 Board of Directors.
Once you are selected, you are chosen for a five-year term. My ability to become vice chairman last year and ultimately chairman this year is voted upon by the committee members.
BK: How would you describe your experience on the committee?
CM: One of the most fulfilling, from a career standpoint. I’ve had [the] opportunity to interact with the CEOs of CBS and Turner Sports to deal with the individuals within the industry, television, sports, and marketing.
I had [the] opportunity to interact with four governors and several mayors of cities as we went out and selected cities to host not only regionals but the Final Four.
So, at every level of business and government, you can interact at a high level, so you learn so much. You know how business is done. [Now I] have those contacts that ultimately will be able to help me within my roles as commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It has been one of the most fulfilling career opportunities that I’ve had, and it will allow me, in my opinion, to become an even more polished commissioner to assist the SWAC and achieve the goals we’ve all set for ourselves.
BK: What are some things you learned through these experiences that you can implement as commissioner of the SWAC?
CM: How the big boys and girls do business nationally and to be in the room … I think that’s significant. To be in the room when you hear television contracts being talked about and hearing about facilities, you can understand all the intricacies of [how] all this works. Then you can take those lessons back.
As you look at your television contracts, [and] deal with some of the same executives, you are speaking the same language. They know that you know. There are different levels to operate than what we [the SWAC] are normally able to operate. To be honest with you, it was a realization that the Southwestern Athletic Conference has a good standing.
Historically, we’ve done a good job of putting ourselves at the forefront of many of these entities. From a macro standpoint, being in the room, being at the table, and having these conversations are important and significant in my growth [as a commisioner] and this conference.
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BK: I was looking at the numbers, perhaps not as detailed as what you have access to, but they indicated the viewership of the national championship was up a small degree from last year. Is that accurate?
CM: That is correct. One thing you have to draw from this year is that it was on cable, and TNT had it. Last year, it was on CBS, and you typically have more viewers on CBS because you can get that over the air [easier] versus you having to get TNT from a cable perspective. So the fact that we had larger numbers on cable than we did the previous year on over-the-air television shows the strength of the tournament. A lot of people watched basketball this year. I think it was close to 15 million at its peak.
From the start [of the tournament], Grambling and Montana State had the highest (First Four) viewership in six or seven years. I don’t know the exact number, but [it was] the most in quite some time. So, the energy and enthusiasm of this tournament continue to grow.
BK: When you were watching Grambling in the tournament, were you watching with your SWAC commissioner hat on or that of the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee chairman?
CM: As chair, you can’t cheer or pull for a team. That is the reason why one of our principles is that when your team is playing, you cannot serve in a community role. So, I was actually on the opposite side of the court as commissioner. When Grambling played in the First Four game, I was able to attend that game, so I had no chair duties for that game. Even in the selection room, when Grambling is talked about, I had to leave the room, so I have no say in the seeding of Grambling, the selection of Grambling, where they landed. I am totally out of the room.
That’s true with any other committee member that has a team in it. So, I had no issue cheering for Grambling because every time they played, I was not a committee member.
BK: As you look throughout the season, SWAC teams defeated mid-majors and even some Power Five opponents. How far away would we be from seeing a SWAC team go on a run in the NCAA Tournament? What do you think needs to happen for that to come to fruition?
CM: Well, I think seeding is going to be extremely important. So let’s take Grambling, for example. Grambling was within seven points of Purdue in the second half, and then Purdue stretched the lead out. But you look at some of the Purdue games, and others did not perform as well as Grambling, which shows that Grambling was a really good team.
When you look at the team with the best NET rating [that] was Southern University. Southern University was on the board with a Quad 1 and Quad 2 win. Some teams with 15 seeds did not have Quad 1 or Quad 2 wins. We don’t know this for a fact, but had Southern won the regular season, they could have gotten out of (playing in) the First Four game.
If we (the SWAC) can get a higher seed, I think we will be able to make a run. It is going to be extremely difficult for any team in any conference consistently to make a run as a 15 or 16 seed because those teams are playing the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.
We have to strategically work our out-of-conference schedules to improve our standing and get a higher seed. Once we get the higher seeds, you’ll see more consistent and deeper runs in the tournament.
BK: Regarding scheduling, is any collaboration among the conference regarding scheduling beneficial to the SWAC?
CM: We talk about it as a league. Scheduling at this point is autonomous and done strictly by the school. The conference does not put those requirements on it, but we have started to work collaboratively to be able to do it
BK: Do you ever think it would get to a point, monetary restrictions aside, foresee where some mandatory scheduling parameters could be instituted?
CM: That’s a membership decision. Being an athletics director in the Southwestern Athletic Conference for over 20 years, I understand as commissioner how important that direction [is] and [ensuring] the involvement of the membership.
Each school has unique challenges, so I don’t want to go in and put an overall mandate [in place]. Everything we do from a conference rules standpoint starts at the membership level. We don’t do anything that does not start with the membership. If our membership agrees to it, we will put a plan in place, but all of our decisions will start and stop at the membership now.
BK: Is the SWAC basketball tournament moving from Birmingham to Atlanta?
CM: At this point, we haven’t announced any changes in our basketball tournament. I know there were a lot of conversations about Atlanta, so I am not going to confirm or deny it. The only thing I will say is, at this point, we have not moved our basketball tournament, but we will be making an announcement on the basketball tournament and its future in the weeks to come.
BK: How would you rate your performance as NCAA Division I men’s basketball chairman?
CM: I don’t know. I will leave that to my colleagues and the public. The one thing I wanted to do was show the world, not just the nation but the world, that the Southwestern Athletic Conference can lead the nation’s most preeminent athletic event.
I wanted to show the world through my eyes what the Southwestern Athletic Conference was all about. I think we did a good job of doing that. [I] got a lot of e-mails, calls, and social media posts from individuals young and old (who were) proud to see the SWAC at the highest level (and myself) handing out the national championship trophy. So, I think we made SWAC Nation proud. I’ll leave it up to others to judge my performance.
