Jim Scherr was named the first commissioner of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference last Wednesday in Colorado Springs, the headquarters city of the NCHC.
Scherr, the former Chief Executive Officer of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), was selected as the league’s new and first commissioner after an extensive nationwide search that included more than 80 different candidates, according to Brian Faison, the University of North Dakota Athletic Director.
“The selection of Jim Scherr as our first commissioner is the culmination of a thorough, national search to identify an exceptional sports business executive who will provide the leadership, vision and credibility to make our new conference the benchmark for excellence in collegiate hockey,” said Faison. “While the position attracted dozens of very impressive candidates, Jim distinguished himself as someone who exceeded the leadership criteria established by our athletic directors.”
At the press conference, Faison introduced Scherr and gave credit to the Goldwater Group and Stafford Sports for consulting with the conference in its search for a commissioner.
“Our top priority since last summer, when the league’s creation was announced, was to find a commissioner for the new league,” said Faison. “We are creating something new and very special here.”
The new eight-school Division I men’s hockey conference, which includes DU, won’t commence play until the 2013-2014 season; however, Scherr will have his work cut out for him in the upcoming months with a lengthy checklist of tasks.
At the announcement last week, Scherr said his top priority would be to get his office in Colorado Springs up and running, build a conference staff and work on several key organizational functions, which include hiring a Director of Hockey Operations.
While there may be a few other items at the top of the list, there is no bigger one than working out a potential billion-dollar television agreement for the league when it starts play in the fall of 2013.
“There is nothing to announce today [in terms of a television deal], but I have strong hopes that a big TV deal will be worked out in the upcoming months,” said Scherr.
According to Scherr, the number of games each team plays will be important to the deal. Although not finalized, Scherr predicted that the eight schools’ schedules will be broken down into a 24-game conference season with an additional ten non-conference games.
The NCHC is composed of eight institutions, which include Colorado College, DU, Miami University, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of North Dakota, St. Cloud State University and Western Michigan University.
When asked whether or not the conference would pursue expansion before its initial season, Scherr responded that it would be premature to talk about expansion at this time.
“These are tremendously competitive schools with great markets,” said Scherr. “This conference represents something that will be a new landmark for collegiate sports, and while we are absolutely looking at national realignment [within other conferences], these schools couldn’t be a better fit.”
From 2005 to 2009, Scherr served as CEO of the USOC, commanding 45 Olympic sports and directing the day-to-day operations of the organization. During his time as CEO, the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team collected 110 medals, the most ever for an American Olympic team in a non-boycotted Olympic Games.
“Certainly my previous experiences give me an understanding of all the challenges that come [with this new position],” said Scherr. “This is just a tremendous honor and privilege for me; it was an easy decision to pursue this opportunity.”
