Business Professor Guiding NCAA D-II Management Council
By Rae Lynch
Ben Cherry, a professor of management for Cal State San Marcos’ College of Business Administration and the faculty athletics representative, is serving as chair of the NCAA Division II Management Council. Cherry assumed the role in January after the 2026 NCAA Convention.
As chair, Cherry directs the council, which recommends administrative policy and regulations to govern the division. He also sponsors legislative proposals for the NCAA Convention and reviews committee recommendations.
"It's been an honor to represent CSUSM Athletics and the CCAA on the Management Council for the past three years," Cherry said. “The topics we discuss span a wide range of issues affecting college athletics and the hundreds of thousands of current NCAA student-athletes. We can't lose sight of the student-athletes who are at the heart of all our deliberations, and it's from that lens that we seek to make decisions that benefit them and ensure a positive overall student-athlete experience going forward.”
Last fall, Cherry was also awarded the NCAA Division II Faculty Athletics Association Faculty of the Year Award for 2025. He has been a faculty athletics representative for CSUSM since 2004.
"The political and legal landscape is changing rapidly, and so too is higher education more broadly," Cherry said. “I know it's the intent of all the dedicated professionals at the NCAA national office to lead rather than to respond, even in the midst of a shifting landscape. And while I certainly don't have the answers, I have every confidence that the many people involved in decision-making, across the association, are trying their best to make sense of it all.”
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