Newton, Darger named ’26-’27 committee chairs

Jul 11, 2025, 10:37 AM ET INDIANAPOLIS– The NCAA on Friday named the 2026-27 chairs of the NCAA Division I males’s and women’s basketball committees and a strategy to reveal the leading 16 seeds for the women’s competition the day before Selection Sunday.Samford athletic director Martin Newton will head the males’s committee and BYU senior associate athletic director Liz Darger will lead the women’s. Editor’s Picks 1 Associated Newton will work as vice chair for the coming season, supporting Sun Belt Conference commissioner and 2025-26 chair Keith Gill. Newton played basketball for Samford in the early 1980s and has served on the Department I Council and the Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee.Darger, the females’s vice chair this year, will take control of for Milwaukee athletic director and chair Amanda Braun.

Darger was an assistant coach at Utah Valley for six years before going into sports administration at BYU in 2015. The NCAA stated revealing the leading 16 seeds on the day before Choice Sunday would permit host websites more time to set

up its tournament operations. The leading 16 will be offered in alphabetical order.