INDIANAPOLIS — Syracuse Director of Athletics John Wildhack has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Wildhack, who is replacing North Carolina’s Bubba Cunningham as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s representative on the committee, will serve a five-year term that will officially begin Sept. 1 and end in 2030.
Wildhack has been in his current role at Syracuse for nearly nine years, returning to his alma mater in 2016 after a successful career at ESPN that spanned more than three decades. The Buffalo, New York, native received a degree in communications from Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications and immediately began working as a production assistant for ESPN in 1980. He served in several other production positions before his move to the management track, including associate producer, senior associate producer, producer and coordinating producer. Among the sports he worked on were college basketball and football, boxing, golf and auto racing. He served as coordinating producer for ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” and NFL draft telecasts in 1988 and 1989 and produced NFL games for the network — the first NFL games on cable — from 1987-89.
Wildhack’s managerial role at the company began in 1990 when he was named director of event productions. In 1991, he was promoted to vice president for remote production, a position he held through 1993, when he became senior vice president for remote production. He moved to the programming department as senior vice president for programming in September 1994, and he became senior vice president for programming acquisitions and strategy in 2005. Wildhack was directly involved in the renewal and expansion of many ESPN and ESPN2 programming agreements for the NFL, MLB, NBA, Bowl Championship Series, NCAA, the four tennis Grand Slam events and a variety of major college conferences. His efforts were integral to the increase of live and original programming on ESPN and ESPN2. Under his direction, the evolution of ESPN2’s programming lineup included an extensive commitment to auto racing, college basketball and football, leading to ESPN2 becoming the fastest-growing network of the 1990s.
From 2007 to 2012, Wildhack was ESPN’s executive vice president for programming and acquisitions. In that role, he oversaw all rights negotiations and managed relationships with rights holders for all ESPN entities. Before returning to Syracuse, Wildhack served as the network’s executive vice president for programming and production.
“It’s a privilege to represent Syracuse University and the Atlantic Coast Conference on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee,” Wildhack said. “I’m thankful to Commissioner (Jim) Phillips for nominating me. The NCAA tournament is one of the great sporting events in the world. I look forward and am honored to work with (NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball) Dan Gavitt, the NCAA staff and my fellow committee members.”
Wildhack is the third Syracuse director of athletics to serve on the committee, joining Lew Andreas (1954-59) and Jake Crouthamel (1991-96). He will be joined on the committee by incoming Chair Keith Gill, the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, as well as Greg Byrne of Alabama, Mark Coyle of Minnesota, Irma Garcia of Manhattan, Stu Jackson of the West Coast Conference, Arthur Johnson of Temple, Zack Lassiter of Abilene Christian, Martin Newton of Samford, Lee Reed of Georgetown, Chad Weiberg of Oklahoma State and Tom Wistrcill of the Big Sky Conference.
