INDIANAPOLIS — Santa Clara Director of Athletics Renee Baumgartner has been appointed to the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Her five-year term begins immediately.
A native of Portland, Oregon, Baumgartner earned a bachelor’s degree in sports information and broadcast journalist from Southern California in 1987. She completed her master’s degree from Oregon in 1989 and earned a Ph.D. from Oregon in 1996. While at Southern California, Baumgartner was a four-year letterwinner and team captain for the Trojans golf team. Between 1987 and 2000, she served as golf coach at Southern California and Oregon, leading the Trojans to a national runner-up finish in 1994 and later building the Ducks into one of the nation’s premier programs. For her efforts, she was inducted into the National Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Baumgartner’s administration career began while she was still coaching at Oregon, first serving as interim senior woman administrator in 1998. She was named associate athletics director a year later and senior associate athletics director in 2002. In 2011, Baumgartner moved across the country to serve as deputy athletics director and chief of staff at Syracuse, where for four years she oversaw ticketing, marketing, fundraising and media relations while also serving as the department’s liaison with the men’s basketball program.
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In July 2015, Baumgartner returned to the West Coast, where for the past eight years she has overseen Santa Clara’s 20 Division I sports while also serving the NCAA membership by being active on the Division I Council, the Competition Oversight Committee, the Management Council and the Championships Finance Review Committee.
“I would like to thank West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson and Executive Associate Commissioner Connie Hurlbut for their unwavering support of my candidacy,” Baumgartner said. “It is an honor and a privilege to be selected as a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, and is a dream come true for me personally. I’m thrilled about the opportunity to work closely with Dan Gavitt, the NCAA staff and my fellow committee members to serve our membership and provide a fair, competitive and memorable NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.”
The chair of the Men’s Basketball Committee for the 2023-24 season is 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; Arthur Johnson, director of athletics at Temple; Martin Newton, director of athletics at Samford; Jamie Pollard, director of athletics at Iowa State; and Tom Wistrcill, commissioner of the Big Sky Conference.