SAN FRANCISCO – USF Director of Athletics Scott Sidwell has been appointed as the chair of the NCAA baseball selection committee for the upcoming season. He succeeds South Alabama Athletic Director Dr. Joel Erdmann as the head of the national committee responsible for selecting the 64 teams who will participate in the NCAA Baseball Tournament in June.

“Certainly it’s a real honor to be selected as the chair of the NCAA baseball selection committee,” Sidwell said. “The College World Series is one of the great sporting events sponsored by the NCAA, and I’m honored to be one of many people who helps put that on.

“Having been a college baseball player, a coach and now an administrator, and having been to the College World Series as an administrator, along with multiple regionals, it’s very near and dear to my heart.”

As committee chairman, Sidwell will be charged with facilitating the months-long process of selecting the 64 team field for the NCAA Tournament, coordinating communication and review efforts among the eight regions represented, as well as overseeing the entire slate of operations leading up to and during the College World Series in Omaha. Sidwell’s role will also extend to representing the committee at social and media functions surrounding the championship.

Sidwell’s baseball experience runs deep. A former utility player at Brown and Tulane, Sidwell participated in the 1994 NCAA Regional with the Green Wave before serving as an assistant coach during Tulane’s 1996 Regional appearance. Sidwell later served as an associate athletic director at Tulane during a stretch of nine consecutive NCAA Regionals appearances that included College World Series appearances in 2001 and 2005.

He has spent the last two years as the chair of the West regional advisory committee where he helped coordinate the entire selection process involving West Coast Conference, Big West, Pac 12, Mountain West and WAC institutions.