INDIANAPOLIS — Samford Director of Athletics Martin Newton has been named chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee for the 2026-27 season. Newton will serve as vice chair for the coming season, supporting Sun Belt Conference commissioner and 2025-26 chair, Keith Gill.
Newton has been leading the athletics department at Samford for the past 14 years, during which time the Bulldogs have captured 87 regular-season and postseason Southern Conference championships. Newton was an honorable mention all-conference basketball player at Samford, earning his degree from the university in 1983. He then spent more than a quarter century working in marketing for major shoe companies before going to Kentucky in 2009. During his two-year stay in Lexington, he managed the budget, fundraising, compliance, scheduling, marketing and academic support for the men’s basketball program.
A recognized leader in collegiate athletics, Newton has served on the NCAA’s Council Coordination Committee, the Division I Council and the Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee, which makes recommendations for the betterment of regular-season and postseason basketball. Newton is the son of the late Naismith Hall of Fame inductee C.M. Newton, the legendary college basketball player, coach and administrator, who served on the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee from 1992-99 and chaired it his final two years while the athletics director at Kentucky.
“It is a tremendous honor to be elected to this prestigious position by my colleagues on the committee,” Newton said. “When I was appointed to the committee in 2022, I considered it one of the highlights of my professional career, not only for the opportunity it presents but because I got to follow in my father’s footsteps. To further follow those steps by taking a leadership position within this group is a bit surreal. My family and I feel an extraordinary sense of pride to have this opportunity.”
The 87th Division I Men’s Basketball Championship will culminate with the Men’s Final Four on April 4 and 6 in Indianapolis, which will host the event for the ninth time. That ranks second only to Kansas City, which hosted the Final Four 10 times between 1940 and 1988. Indianapolis will tie the record when it hosts the 2029 event. This year’s Final Four weekend will include more basketball than ever, with the National Invitation Tournament semifinals taking place Thursday night, April 2, at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse, and the NIT championship game and NCAA Divisions II and III national championships all being played Sunday, April 5, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Newton and Gill will be joined on the committee by 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, Lee Reed of Georgetown, Chad Weiberg of Oklahoma State, John Wildhack of Syracuse, and Tom Wistrcill of the Big Sky Conference.
