New Sun Belt commissioner looks for continued success

Keith Gill, a 25-year veteran in intercollegiate athletics oversight, will succeed Karl Benson as the Sun Belt Conference's next commissioner, the league office announced Tuesday.

Gill -- an executive associate commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference, which does not have football -- will become the first black commissioner of a Football Bowl Subdivision conference when he begins his leadership with the Sun Belt.

Gill will officially begin as commissioner on May 1. Benson, who announced his departure in August, will have his contractual term with the Sun Belt conclude this summer.

"I do want to thank Karl for his great leadership," Gill said, "and also for giving me the opportunity to lead a conference that is in such good shape and has been so well directed."

Gill used part of his opening remarks in an introductory conference call Tuesday to wish good luck to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's women's basketball team, which will play in the first round of the women's NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

Gill spoke extensively about the Sun Belt's new pod scheduling system for basketball, which begins next season and is intended to increase the Sun Belt's representation in the NCAA Tournament.

"I'm interested to see how it plays out," Gill said. "It's really too early to kind of comment until you see how it plays out. ... I'm looking forward to getting started so I can get a clear sense of what the anticipated outcomes would be.

Gill said the Sun Belt intends to develop a system to analyze if the changes "that we made, as it relates to the basketball strategic planning, are working."

Gill said it's valuable to have a larger sample size to properly evaluate if the pod scheduling system is effective, saying it will be a "multi-year" evaluation process -- meaning the pod scheduling will remain for more than, at least, one season, he expects.

Gill said his primary objectives for Sun Belt basketball are to "improve our seeding for our teams that earn the automatic qualifier and also become a multi-bid conference on a consistent basis."

"I think that's the overarching goal," Gill said.

Gill also vowed to elevate perception and success of Sun Belt football.

"I think it's going to be important for me to do more than one thing at a time," he said. "I don't think we're ever going to be satisfied with where we are in football until we're at the top. ... As a league, we'll continue to focus on improving football every day.

"Can we get someone preseason ranked on a regular basis? Can we get our champion to be the highest ranked [among the Group of Five], so that they play in a New Year's Six bowl? There's plenty of things that we can be doing in the football space to help us grow."

As an Atlantic 10 executive, Gill served as a primary liaison to the conference's men's basketball advancement committee, which is responsible for identifying initiatives and strategies to ensure A-10 basketball "remains a top seven league and increases the number of A-10 at-large teams that annually advance" to the men's NCAA Tournament, the news release said.

Prior to joining the A-10 in 2017, Gill served as an athletic director for 10 years, including five at the University of Richmond and five at American University.

"I'm really excited to get started," Gill said, "so we can work together to ensure the Sun Belt remains one of the best Football Bowl Subdivision conferences in the country."

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Spiders Athletics/UR

Keith Gill

Sports on 03/20/2019

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