NCAA Expected to Announce Today Four Candidates to Succeed Byers

Four men have been chosen finalists to succeed Walter Byers as executive director of the NCAA, the Associated Press learned. The candidates will be identified at a news conference today.

None of the four is a member of the NCAA staff, a source said.

People close to the search committee said three of the final four could be John Ryan, president of Indiana University and former chairman of the powerful NCAA Presidents Commission; Harvey Schiller, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, and Richard Schultz, athletic director at Virginia and chairman of the Division I men’s basketball committee.

A search committee headed by NCAA President Will Bailey of Auburn University has been screening candidates for several months. Bailey will make the final list public today, and a decision is expected before the NCAA’s special convention June 29-30 in Dallas.

Others mentioned include Jack Davis of Oregon State, a former NCAA president, and Bill Cobey, a former North Carolina athletic director who has been active in North Carolina politics and has strong ties to the American Council on Education.

Byers was 29 when he was put in charge of a two-person staff operating out of the Big Ten Conference offices at Chicago in 1951. A short time later, he moved the NCAA to Kansas City, his hometown, and in 36 eventful years has built one of the most powerful amateur sports organizations in the world.