Story originally published on vmkikeydets.com
VMI basketball guard TJ Johnson has been selected as one of just three student-athletes nationwide to serve on the NCAA Division I Board of Directors.
The board is the highest-ranking governing body for the division, with oversight of the Division I budget, select litigation matters and infractions processes.
As a student-athlete on the committee, Johnson will be tasked with giving an athlete’s perspective of everything happening in the current collegiate sports landscape such as NIL, the transfer portal and many other areas.
“The Board of Directors are in charge of making a lot of the rules and everything going on behind the scenes,” Johnson said. “The three of us will give feedback on what our experience has been like, what we view as things we can change, make better, explain what’s working and what is not, etc. We’re there to give a broader perspective of what it’s like from our side of the spectrum.”
For the past few months, Johnson has served as the SoCon representative for the NCAA Student-Athlete Engagement Group and heard about the opportunity to serve on the NCAA Board of Directors through that association.
“We had our first Student-Athlete Engagement Group meeting a couple months ago and they spoke of a few different leadership positions that had opened,” Johnson said. “One was to serve as a student-athlete representative for the NCAA Board of Directors. They sent the reps from all the other conferences an application, so I went through the application process and found out last week that I had been selected.”
An economics and business major, Johnson is set to begin his responsibilities with the committee in January.
“It’s a good opportunity for me to learn how the NCAA functions and how they make decisions,” Johnson said. “I hope to be able to make it better in some way, shape, or form. I’ve got two younger brothers – one playing basketball at another university and one in high school – so I have the mindset going in that hopefully I can help make it better. I’m looking forward to a great experience and to learn from it.”
VMI Basketball Head Coach Andrew Wilson
“This is a tremendous honor for TJ from the NCAA to be selected as one of three student-athletes from around the country. He is a leader on and off the court and impacts people in so many ways. We are very proud of him and look forward to seeing the impact he has on this committee.”
