Most of the NCAA's 31 volunteer presidents before restructuring in 1997 were faculty members.

But only three of the Association's last nine leaders under the previous governance structure were drawn from faculty, reflecting first a sharing of authority with athletics administrators and then assumption of that authority by institutional chief executive officers.

It took five years under the new governance structure before a faculty athletics representative rose to any of the top leadership posts still available to non-CEOs, but there are plenty of signs that faculty will continue to assume such positions in the Association.

"We're now seeing faculty athletics representatives -- or at least some of them -- taking leadership positions within the NCAA governance structure," said Ed Streb, president of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association. "That's a recent development, and I think that's a strong and positive development."

Percy Bates of the University of Michigan recently concluded a one-year term as the first faculty athletics representative to chair the Division I Management Council, and Christopher Walker of the University of Redlands just concluded service as the first faculty member to chair the Division III Management Council.

Now, Division II has elected Tony Capon of the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, as the first faculty representative to chair its Management Council.

A faculty representative, Jim Casteneda of Rice University, currently leads the Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet.

With Capon's current role in his division's Management Council and faculty reps also serving as chair of two important committees (Academic Requirements and Legislation), Division II may have the strongest representation of faculty in leadership positions.

"I think in Division II, faculty reps feel that we are well-represented in the governance structure," Capon said. "When we look at committees, Academic Requirements and Legislation have a number of faculty reps on them, and those are the kinds of issues that faculty reps tend to have the greatest interest in. Federation in general has worked quite well for Division II, and I think it's worked quite well for Division II faculty reps. We certainly have a much stronger voice in the process than we did under the old system, because there simply were fewer slots available for us to take."

-- Jack L. Copeland