Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Brian Thornton and Oklahoma State Athletics Director Chad Weiberg have been appointed to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee. Their five-year terms begin Sept. 1.
Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Brian Thornton
Thornton is the fourth WAC commissioner to serve on the committee, joining Paul Brechler (1968), Wiles Hallock (1969-71) and Karl Benson (2002-06). He's the 10th representative from the league, and the first since Scott Barnes of Utah State from 2011-13. Thornton has been at his current post since November 2021, following a one-year stint as associate commissioner for basketball for the American Athletic Conference. Before that, he spent two years at the NCAA, serving as the assistant director of basketball development.
Thornton was a standout collegiate player, beginning his career at Vanderbilt, where he was on the Southeastern Conference's All-Freshmen team in 2002. He transferred to Xavier, earning the Atlantic 10 Conference's Student-Athlete of the Year in 2005 and 2006, College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America honors and first-team all-conference recognition in 2006 when the Musketeers won the Atlantic 10 championship. Thornton earned undergraduate and master's degrees from Xavier. After playing professionally in Germany, Thornton spent nine years coaching at the Division I level, with stops at Xavier, Winthrop, Furman and Ball State.
"I am thrilled for the opportunity to represent our conference on the Men's Basketball Committee," Thornton said. "I was very fortunate to experience the NCAA tournament as both a student-athlete and a coach, and to come full circle and give back to the tournament from an administrative level will be extremely rewarding. The NCAA tournament is the crown jewel of college athletics and serves as one of the greatest platforms in all of sports. I look forward to being a small part of the most exciting three weeks of the sports calendar."
Oklahoma State Athletics Director Chad Weiberg
For the past 30 years, Weiberg has been a fixture within the Big 12 Conference, especially at Oklahoma State, from which he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1994. He immediately began working in the athletics department, serving as the director of corporate sales and donor relations for five years before moving to the alumni office and working as the school's senior director of field operations. During that time, he earned his master's degree. Weiberg then spent a year as director of development for the Oklahoma State Foundation, followed by a year in the same role for the athletics department.
He left Stillwater for Manhattan, Kansas, in 2004, serving one year as the Kansas State Foundation's director of corporate relations, four years as the athletics department's director of major gifts, and six years as associate athletics director for development. He was named deputy athletics director at Texas Tech in 2015, spending two years in Lubbock before returning to Oklahoma State. After four years as deputy athletics director, Weiberg was named athletics director in the summer of 2021.
Weiberg is the eighth representative of the Big 12 since the league formed in 1996. The list of past appointees includes his uncle, former league commissioner Kevin Weiberg. It also includes current Iowa State Athletics Director Jamie Pollard, whose term will end Sept. 1, along with the term of current chair and Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner Charles McClelland.
"It's a great honor to have the opportunity to serve on the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee," Weiberg said. "I'm grateful to Commissioner (Brett) Yormark for the nomination to represent the Big 12 Conference at this dynamic time in college basketball. The NCAA tournament is one of the premier events in all of sports, and I look forward to working with (NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball) Dan Gavitt, the NCAA staff and every member of the committee to continue that legacy and provide a memorable experience for all involved."
