National Football Foundation

During his 38-year tenure at the NCAA, Tom Jernstedt oversaw Division I Football, and he served as the president of USA Basketball and on the board of the U.S. Olympic Committee. He played a key role in nurturing the growth of the NCAA Basketball tournament from $1 million in revenue and 32 teams in 1972, the year before he ran the tournament, to 68 teams and a $10.8 billion television rights deal the year before his retirement in 2011.

His leadership building the NCAA "March Madness" brand earned him the moniker as the "Father of the Final Four" and induction into Naismith Hall of Fame. He also served on the first College Football Playoff selection committee from 2014-2018.

"He's the guy more than anybody else who has allowed the [March Maddness] to evolve," said Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, who serves on the NFF Board, in a 2008 interview with the Sports Business Journal. "The beauty of the tournament is the way it's been allowed to grow from the bottom up, not from the top down. And that's a credit to Tom. His genius is the subtlety of his leadership."

A graduate of the University Oregon and a backup quarterback and an offensive end for College Football Hall of Fame Coach Len Casanova from 1964-66, Jernstedt worked in private business for two years after graduation. He returned to his alma mater in 1969 as an event manager in the athletics department under Casanova who had become the Duck's athletics director.

In 1972, Jernstedt left Oregon to join the NCAA as a director of events, earning a promotion to assistant executive director just two years later. He subsequently held a number of senior-level management positions during the next four decades, culminating in his appointment in 2003 as executive vice president and second in command of the organization.

Tom Jernstedt passed away Sept. 6, 2020. He was 75.