Samford Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Martin Newton sits down with ADU’s Tai M. Brown at the 2025 NCAA Convention to offer insight into developing a data-informed decision-making process; as a member of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, Newton has a front-row seat in one of the most high-profile decision-making processes – selecting the field for the Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. Newton muses on the importance of respecting the past – and the way the Selection Committee has always developed the field – while making tweaks to accommodate for new technologies and metrics. Newton: “If everything’s based on analytics, you really don’t need a committee.”

Similarly, Newton and Brown discuss how senior leaders balance decision-making for their departments, relying on both data or facts as well as feelings – as Newton did in hiring former Bulldogs Men’s Basketball Head Coach Bucky McMillan before McMillan had experience coaching at the Division I level. Newton: “If you looked at the facts, that was a crazy decision – probably a bad decision. But my gut feeling was, ‘This is the guy.’ And then we went to the NCAA Tournament last year.”

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing:

1:10 - I want to talk about decision-making, starting with the education they give you as part of the Division I Men's Basketball Committee in terms of selecting the field for the NCAA Tournament.
2:58 - Is the selection process a guarded secret, like the Coke or Pepsi formula, or can you offer insight into the thought process?
4:50 - This is your third year on the committee... has the approach evolved over time?
6:18 - Would you have the Cinderella stories if you just put the decision-making process into AI and leveraged technology instead of the human element?
7:12 - You're consuming a whole lot of basketball.
7:31 - How long is a committee appointment?
7:43 - Are people still in love with basketball after serving on the committee, being immersed in it?
9:21 - When you think about decision-making as an AD... you're 11, 12 years into the role and when you came in, you probably thought you had a process.
11:49 - Talk to me about a complex decision you've had to make over the years.
12:53 - Talk to me about analyzing causes and symptoms, especially around personnel decisions.
14:01 - Has most of your staff been with you?
14:59 - Has your senior leadership been around for awhile?
16:28 - Do you onboard new hires as to here's how we make our decisions here or here are some outcomes that have resulted from the way we make decisions?
18:04 - Tell me about the process of developing that layer of middle management leaders.
19:18 - Is there a part of that that involves teaching people about emotional intelligence?
19:54 - Think about the impact of having a leader who hasn't been trained to care about people...