American University Athletics Director Joni Comstock has been named NCAA senior vice president for championships.

Comstock, who replaces Judy Sweet, will join the national office staff September 29. She also has been designated as the Association’s senior woman administrator, a role Sweet had filled since 2001.

Comstock will lead a staff that administers 85 annual championships and also will oversee the statistics and playing-rules staffs.

She has been the athletics director at American since 2003. Before that, she was the AD for three years at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.

Comstock has chaired the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee since September 2005.

"Joni emerged from a strong field of candidates because of her experience at the local, conference and national levels," said NCAA President Myles Brand. "Her efforts at both North Carolina-Asheville and at American have been characterized by strong leadership and visionary growth."

"She also presented strong national involvement in intercollegiate athletics as a member of the women’s basketball committee. She clearly has a firm grasp of how championships can enhance the student-athlete experience and how to ensure that the experience is positive."

Comstock also has served in administrative positions at Purdue University, where she led marketing and promotions efforts for women’s basketball, and the University of Illinois, Champaign.

Karen Morrison, the NCAA’s new director of gender initiatives and student-athlete well-being in the education services group, is one of four recent appointees to director-level positions on the national office staff.

Morrison, most recently an associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at the University of Colorado, Boulder, joins another newcomer to the staff, Charles E. Wynne, who will serve as director of communication strategy in the public and media relations group. Wynne has been a deputy director for public affairs with the United States Air Force since 2003.

In addition, Damani Leech, previously an associate director on the NCAA football and baseball staff, has been promoted to director of football and baseball issues, and Jacqie Carpenter, formerly an assistant director of championships, has been promoted to director for Division I women’s basketball.

While at Colorado, Morrison served as a member of the Division I Academics/ Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet and the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee.

"Her leadership experience will be beneficial as she fills the role of educating the membership, national office and public on gender issues, Title IX, leadership, health and safety, and student-athlete development and well-being," said Ron Stratten, NCAA vice president for education services.

The NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct named Mike Rose of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and Sarah Dawn Schettle of the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, as the 2006 NCAA National Sportsmanship Award winners.

The two were chosen from among six finalists — three male and three female — representing all three NCAA divisions.

The award honors student-athletes who through their actions display the values of respect, fairness, civility, honesty, caring and responsibility in competition or in practice.

Other divisional winners were Anna Key, University of California, Berkeley (Division I); Parker Dalton, Texas A&M University, College Station (Division I); Rae Ann Sherred, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (Division II); and Nathan Edmunds, Middlebury College (Division III).

Rose and Schettle will be honored next spring at the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance National Sportsmanship Awards banquet.

The Black Coaches Association will encourage individual coaches seeking positions heading football programs to file complaints under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and also is indicating that it is prepared to file complaints on coaches’ behalf, according to a report in USA Today.

The association’s executive director, Floyd Keith, told the newspaper in its September 6 edition that the BCA could file complaints if "searches appear to be flawed or don’t seem to be moving in an equitable manner."

Title VII prohibits intentional employment discrimination as well as practices that have the effect of discriminating on the basis of race, religion, sex or national origin.

"I think it’s got some strong possibilities because it’s not that much different from Title IX," Keith said. "It gives some teeth to the issue."

This fall, the BCA again will release its Hiring Report Card for Division I football and also is planning new report cards on Division I women’s basketball and Division I directors of athletics.