INDIANAPOLIS — Temple Vice President and Director of Athletics Arthur Johnson and Saint Peter’s Director of Athletics Rachelle Paul are the two newest appointees to the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and will begin their terms Sept. 1.
Johnson, who has been in his current role for a year and a half, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgia and served his alma mater as associate athletics director for internal operations and as the primary administrator for men’s basketball from 2005-11. He left for the University of Texas at Austin to serve as senior associate athletics director for football operations for three years and then as senior associate athletics director for administration and operations for seven years before taking over at Temple.
The Thomasville, Georgia, native also has held the positions of administrative assistant for football operations at North Carolina (1999) and manager of football operations at Arizona State (1996-99).
“I am honored to represent Temple University and the American Athletic Conference by serving on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee,” Johnson said. “This is one of the most prestigious committees our national organization runs, and I look forward to working with my fellow committee members to ensure the best teams are selected to compete for the national championship.”
Named as the 2022 Women Leaders in College Sports NCAA Division I Nike Executive of the Year, Paul is in her fourth year as director of athletics at Saint Peter’s after being named the 10th athletics director in school history in 2019. Her tenure at Saint Peter’s is headlined by the Peacocks men’s basketball team’s unprecedented run to the Elite Eight in 2022.
Paul is a native of Buffalo, New York, and a graduate of Canisius, where she was a standout lacrosse player as well as a letter winner in soccer. She has more than 15 years of experience in collegiate athletics administration. Before going to Saint Peter’s, Paul was senior associate athletics director, senior woman administrator and deputy Title IX coordinator at Seton Hall. She also has held positions at Monmouth, Canisius, the Northeast Conference and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
“It is my distinct honor and privilege to be the first representative from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to serve on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee,” Paul said. “I am deeply humbled by this appointment, and I am grateful to Dan Gavitt and the NCAA staff for providing me this exceptional opportunity. The game of basketball has served as a cornerstone of my professional career, and I look forward to working with many esteemed colleagues to ensure we continue to grow the game and to preserve the success of the greatest event in all of sports.”
The new members will replace current committee Chair Chris Reynolds, the director of athletics at Bradley, and Bernadette McGlade, the commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The chair of the committee for the 2023-24 season will be Charles McClelland, the commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Other committee members include Greg Byrne, director of athletics at Alabama; Barry Collier, director of athletics at Butler; Mark Coyle, director of athletics at Minnesota; Bubba Cunningham, director of athletics at North Carolina; Keith Gill, commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference; Dave Heeke, director of athletics at Arizona; Martin Newton, director of athletics at Samford; Jamie Pollard, director of athletics at Iowa State; and Tom Wistrcill, commissioner of the Big Sky Conference.
