President Trauth named Sun Belt rep to NCAA Presidential Forum

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
Office of Media Relations
October 21, 2015

President Denise Trauth
Denise Trauth

Texas State University President Denise Trauth has been selected by the NCAA Board of Directors to serve as the Sun Belt Conference representative on the newly-formed NCAA Presidential Forum.

President Trauth will attend her first meeting of the Presidential Forum October 28 in Indianapolis. President Trauth joins Texas State Director of Athletics Larry Teis as a member of NCAA governance. In August, Teis was named the Sun Belt Conference representative to the NCAA Division I Council.

The Presidential Forum replaces the Presidential Advisory Group, which had provided voice for presidents who did not have permanent seats on the board. Every conference will have a representative on the Presidential Forum.

"Texas State is one of only a handful of schools in the entire country that have both a president and athletic director serving on the highest committees at the NCAA," Teis said. "As an athletic director, having your president care about not only the conference issues but also take the time to serve nationally on select NCAA committees,  shows our student athletes, staff, coaches, alumni and the entire Bobcat Nation that athletics is an important part of this great university."

The board encouraged conferences to select presidents other than current board members, though each conference can decide whether it wants two people to serve– one on the board, one on the Presidential Forum – or would prefer that its board representative belong to both groups. Terms will be three years, with meetings occurring twice annually.  

The reconfiguration was proposed by the Presidential Advisory Group, which began in 2004 as a way to provide all conferences the opportunity for a president to influence policy at the national level. The Presidential Advisory Group based the design for the new group on a desire to provide appropriate, broad-based counsel to the board from a variety of perspectives within the division.