The reorganization of the Division I governance structure is underway, with conference offices asked to submit to the NCAA national office their nominations for the 198 service opportunities in the new structure by March 28.

The changes, including eliminating the Championships/Competition Cabinet and Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet and replacing them with smaller, more nimble groups, were approved by the Board of Directors in November, and the restructured governance bodies will be in place by the fall.

A slate of candidates for positions on three 31-member groups (Leadership and Legislative Councils and the championships/sports management cabinet) and five 21-member bodies (administrative; academics; recruiting; student-athlete awards, benefits and financial aid; and amateurism cabinets) will be presented to the Board in April.

The development of candidates is underway at conference offices now, and many leagues expect to use meetings held at their conference basketball tournaments to make significant progress on their nominations.

"This process is an opportunity to get people re-energized about serving in the structure and to identify  new talent," said Beth DeBauche, director of Division I. "At the same time, we want some people serving now to continue in the new configuration to allow for some level of continuity within the structure."

Once the new structure is in place and chairs for the groups are selected, the national office will hold an orientation for the leadership sometime during the spring and summer.

The scheduling for future meetings for the reorganized governance bodies is not yet finalized.

In order to help with communication issues within the new structure, the chairs of each of the six cabinets and two councils will serve as a communications/coordination committee. The group will conduct a conference call before and after each round of meetings to ensure that the bodies are working in concert on different issues. With the elimination of the subcommittee structure within the two large cabinets and the reconfiguration of the Management Council, the communication between the eight different bodies will be crucial.

To assist with the transition, the current subcommittees of both cabinets and the Management Council are expected to begin compiling lists of important issues the groups have been working on in order to identify the key themes that will carry over into the work of the reorganized structure. For example, the agents and amateurism subcommittee of the AEC Cabinet has been researching and gathering input on amateurism as it relates to international student-athletes, and that issue will be part of the agenda for the new amateurism cabinet.

Additionally, a portion of the April governance subcommittee meetings will be spent identifying "housekeeping" matters in the Division I manual, with an eye toward identifying any details that have yet to be addressed before the transition occurs in the fall.

The final Management Council meeting is expected to be in April. The final meetings for the two cabinets will be in June. Officials are hopeful that the Leadership Council will hold its first meeting in conjunction with the Board's August meeting. The new cabinet structure will begin meeting in September and the Legislative Council will meet in October.