Martin Newton named chair of DI Men’s Basketball Committee for 2026-27 season

Indianapolis – Samford director of athletics Martin Newton was appointed Chairman of the Basketball Committee for Male Basketball NCAA for the 2026-27 season. Newton will serve as a vice-chairman for the upcoming season, supported by the Sun Belt Commissioner and the Chairman of the 2025-26 Keith Gill.

Newton has led the athletic department in Samford for the last 14 years, during which Bulldogs captured 87 southern conferences in the regular season and Postseason. Newton was an honorable mention of the All-Conference basketball player in Samford and won the title at the University of 1983. He then spent more than a quarter of a century in marketing for big shoes than he went to Kentucky in 2009.

Newton, a renowned leader in collective athletics, worked at the Coordination Committee for the coordination of the NCAA Council, the council of Division I and the Commission for Basketball Supervision of Men, which issues recommendations for improving regular and postseason basketball. Newton is the son of a late Inductor of Fame Naism Hall of Fame Cm Newton, a legendary university basketball player, coach and administrator who served in the Basketball Committee for Men in Division I in 1992-99.

“It is a huge honor to be elected to this prestigious position by my colleagues in the committee,” Newton said. “When I was appointed to the Committee in 2022, I considered it one of the highlights of my professional career, not only for the opportunity it represents, but because I had to follow my father’s footsteps.

87. The Basketball Championship of Men and Division I will culminate with the Final Four Men 4 and 6. April in Indianapolis, which will organize the ninth event. This is only second with Kansas City, which hosted the last four times 10 times from 1940 to 1988. Indianapolis will join the record when it hosts the 2029 event. This year’s last four weekend will include more basketball than ever. The semifinals of the National Invitation take place on Thursday evening on April 2, in Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse and Nit Championship Game and NCAA Division II and III National Championships, on Sunday, April 5 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The Newton and Gill will join Greg Byrne of Alabama, Mark Coyle of Minnesota, Irma Garcia of Manhattan, Stu Jackson from the West Coast conference, Arthur Johnson of the Temple, Zack Lassiter of Abilene Christian of Abilene Christian.