CoSIDA Hall of Famer Bill Hancock named first BCS Executive Director
Hancock, currently the BCS administrator and the former director of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, was selected Nov. 17 to become the fiirst executive director of the BCS. Hancock was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2005.
A former University of Oklahoma sports information director and then associate commissioner of the (former) Big Eight Conference, Hancock worked for the NCAA basketball staff from 1989 through 2002. In January 2001, Hancock's 31-year-old son Will, an assistant SID at Oklahoma State, was one of 10 university athletes, officials or others connected to the OSU Cowboys basketball team who died tragically in a plane crash near Denver en route back to Stillwater, Okla. from a game.
Bill Hancock published a book recounting a cross-country bike trip he took as a method of dealing with his son's death entitled "Riding with the Blue Moth."
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- BCS officials selected Bill Hancock to become the first executive director of college football's postseason system.
BCS coordinator and Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford announced Hancock's promotion from administrator to his new position.
Hancock will replace the BCS coordinator, starting next year. The coordinator position has rotated on a two-year basis between conference commissioners since the Bowl Championship Series was implemented in 1998.
But the job has become too big for someone to handle in a part-time role. At times, commissioners found the responsibilities of their full-time gigs conflicted with the duties of BCS coordinator.
"Bill has been a tremendous asset to the BCS since beginning his involvement in 2005," Swofford said in a statement. "With the continued growth and interest in the BCS, it became evident to all of us that an Executive Director was necessary to coordinate what has become a full-time slate of daily responsibilities."
Swofford's two-year term as coordinator will end Jan. 7. At that point Hancock, who has been working as an administrator and spokesman for the BCS since 2005, will assume most of the coordinator's duties.
Big East commissioner John Marinatto would have been next in line to take over the role of BCS coordinator.
"I'm thrilled and humbled to move into this new role," Hancock said in a statement. "I love the special place college football occupies in our society and I am proud of the great benefits the BCS has brought to student-athletes, college football fans and others. It's an honor to be working on behalf of this wonderful game."
In 1989, Hancock became the first director of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball tournament, a job he held for 13 years.