College basketball registered a tremendous victory off the court December 15 when a number of key stakeholders in the sport announced the formation of a national initiative to advance our game.

The College Basketball Partnership is a team of administrators, coaches, media representatives, "legends" of the sport and senior NCAA staff that will monitor the game and shape its future. The 27-member group has a broad agenda -- from marketing and promotions to style of play to recommending legislative adjustments when necessary. In effect, nothing is off limits for discussion. The idea is to celebrate the game's already enormous success and ensure its position as an extraordinary asset for all of intercollegiate athletics.

The panel originally convened last summer to "test the waters" by having preliminary discussions about the opportunities and challenges facing the game. I was so struck by the enthusiasm of those individuals who were participating because of their love for the game and their desire to preserve its future that I recommended the group meet again in October. The success of those two sessions made it clear to everyone involved that this needed to become a group that was visible to the public. In other words, the work of the group would be most effective if others who care about the game knew of its existence.

Now that the formation of the group has been made public, some people have tended to assume that it is of the same mold as other committees that have been assembled over the last year to address issues in intercollegiate athletics. I have appointed several special task forces in the last 12 months as a way to convene a representative cross section of topic-specific experts to focus expeditiously on a particular set of challenges. The NCAA Recruiting Task Force, the NCAA Sports Wagering Task Force and the joint NCAA/USOC Task Force are examples of such groups charged with effecting change in a timely manner, and I am pleased with their successes.

The College Basketball Partnership, however, reflects a different approach. While the task forces I mentioned have been composed primarily of NCAA members who work through or as part of the NCAA governance structure to create change, the basketball partnership is broader than that. In fact, the basketball group in the broadest sense is not even an NCAA endeavor. This is an initiative that comes from outside the structure of the NCAA. It is an attempt to include people who have no role in the NCAA structure (such as media talent, television executives, past "legends" of the game and business partners) as a brain trust to provide new thinking about marketing and promoting the game.

Thus, the composition of the group is not as representative as the traditional NCAA task force model or standard committees that are appointed to work within the structure to produce results. However, the point to celebrate is that while not every NCAA constituency (that is, all administrative levels, all conferences and all divisions or subdivisions) will be represented in the group, every NCAA constituency will benefit from the outcome.

The College Basketball Partnership is not designed only to protect and enhance the game as it is played at the highly visible Division I conferences, or even Division I overall. The partnership affects the game at all intercollegiate levels. This effort is not about fixing a specific problem or focusing on a limited group of participants -- as NCAA-appointed task forces have been charged with doing. No, this is about the game itself. It is about ensuring the game's continued health and viability.

While some of the more high-profile coaches in the game were relied upon to announce the partnership, it does not mean that only high-visibility programs will be the beneficiaries. On the contrary, those coaches volunteered their high visibility to attract attention to all of basketball -- from programs accustomed to participating in Division I March Madness to programs that only occasionally experience postseason play. The partnership is attempting to increase the standing of the game in the public eye by calling on those who are most visible.

We are now at the stage to ask other stakeholders to engage. That is where the partnership will have its inclusive effect. For example, we will include persons from Divisions I-AA and I-AAA who can contribute to the overall effort. Also, we look toward other constituency groups that have traditionally been excluded from any discussion within the NCAA. Attention will need to be paid not to make the group too large to be effective, but there is opportunity for modest expansion.

It also is important to note that the College Basketball Partnership is not simply an initiative from coaches about coaches. While coaches are correctly celebrating the partnership as a mechanism by which their unified voice can be heard, there are other stakeholders who also must be heard.

Understanding, then, the partnership's composition, it is important to also understand its agenda. There were no legislative proposals recommended at the December 15 announcement -- the partnership has discussed various concepts at its first two meetings, but those ideas have not been finalized. There may be recommendations for legislative changes in the future, particularly after the proposals from the men's and women's coaches associations complete their trek through the current legislative cycle. In all cases, legislative and rule changes must go through the normal NCAA process.

But the partnership is about much more than legislation. It is about promoting the game, advocating for the thousands of student-athletes who play it well -- and who are students first and athletes second. It is about competitive equity in recruiting, about retaining student-athletes until they earn their degrees. It is about sportsmanship and ethical conduct, about the style of play and making sure the college game remains unique. And it is about telling our extraordinary story to fans and the general public.

The group will conduct meetings as long as they are productive, and the composition will be dynamic as the topics demand. Experts will be brought on board as needed to address different issues. When its work is done, to the best of its ability, it will be sunset.

There will be differences of opinion about what makes the game great -- and about what can make the game even better. The important point is for the stakeholders to work together toward that common purpose. As Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski said at the time of the announcement, this partnership is about a collective vision, not a set of goals customized to accommodate a single group.

Our game itself is the winner in the formation of the College Basketball Partnership. This is an initiative that will make a difference to our game. And that is something all of us -- regardless of conference or division affiliation -- can celebrate.

Myles Brand is president of the NCAA.