The NCAA national office has implemented a structural move that will enable the staff to better promote and protect the NCAA brand and most efficiently administer the new contracts with CBS Sports and ESPN.

The change involves the marketing, licensing and promotions (MLP) group of the national office, which has been renamed the branding, broadcasting and promotions group (BBP). The four units composing the group also have been modified:

The broadcast services unit becomes the broadcasting and media integration (BMI) unit.

The corporate marketing and licensing units have been combined and a strategic brand management focus has been added to form the brand management and licensing (BML) unit.

The promotions and special events (PSE) unit retains its current name but its functions and scope of responsibilities have expanded.

A new unit has been created -- the rights administration (RA) unit.

Also, because so many of the BBP group's initiatives relate to NCAA championships, Greg Shaheen has been promoted to serve as the primary liaison to the BBP group on behalf of all championships. Shaheen also will assume the duties of managing director of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship. He previously served as the director of operations for the event.

Dennis Cryder, the NCAA's vice-president for BBP, said the structural changes will enable the national office to facilitate the NCAA's renewed commitment to further build and protect its brand, and to integrate one of the NCAA's key assets (NCAA championships) with the BBP functions and new initiatives.

"The internal change also ensures that the national office staff is organized and positioned to administer successfully the new television and marketing agreements signed with CBS and ESPN," Cryder said.

Those contracts become effective in September 2002.

Key personnel in the BBP remain the same as they were in the old MLP, though with different titles in selected cases.

Cryder remains in the oversight position for the group, with four directors guiding the specific functions. They are: Jo Jo Rinebold, director of broadcast and media integration; John Johnson, director of special events and promotions; Melissa Caito, director of brand management and licensing; and David Knopp, coordinating director of rights administration.

The combined initiatives of the BBP and the championships groups will be under the direction of NCAA Senior Vice-President Tom Jernstedt.

"The most recent agreements with CBS Sports and ESPN present once-in-a-lifetime business opportunities for the NCAA; consequently, changes in our staff structure were necessary to help the NCAA be the best possible business partner with the networks and their subcontractors," Jernstedt said. "The structural changes signal the staff's recognition that our internal and external business practices and responsibilities must be administered differently to help our valued business partners champion and support the NCAA's goals, objectives and new opportunities these two agreements afford the membership."

Jernstedt added that the staff's transition to the new structure has been underway for some time and has been implemented in such a way as to be as seamless as possible.

"Our constituents should not notice any interruption in the level of service," he said. "The staff values its current business relationships and is up to the challenge of fulfilling those commitments while also extending and cultivating new ones."