A former Georgia football player landed a key position with the NCAA on Tuesday.
Mark Lewis, a long snapper for the Bulldogs in the late 1980s and a veteran sports-business executive, was named the NCAA’s executive vice president for championships and alliances. He will oversee the NCAA basketball tournament and 88 other championship events, as well as broadcast and corporate partnerships.
Lewis’ highest-profile responsibility will be college basketball’s Final Four, which will be played in Atlanta next year.
Lewis, 44, is the son of Bill Lewis, a former head football coach at Georgia Tech and a former defensive coordinator at UGA.
Mark Lewis lettered on the Georgia football team in 1987 and 1988. He earned accounting and law degrees from UGA.
In his new job, Lewis replaces Greg Shaheen, well-known around college basketball for running the NCAA tournament. Lewis said in a statement that he’ll meet with Shaheen “over the next several days to discuss his role with the NCAA moving forward.”
Lewis had been president since 2005 of Jet Set Sports, a New Jersey-based company in the Olympics hospitality and events business. Previously, he was vice president of sponsorship at NBC and president of Olympic Properties of the U.S., a joint venture between the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee.
He was considered by UGA as a candidate for its athletic-director position in 2003, when Damon Evans was hired, and 2010, when Greg McGarity was hired.
NCAA president Mark Emmert called Lewis “a remarkable executive” with “the right skill set, knowledge and experiences” for his new job.
