NCAA Senior Vice President of Policy and Governance Kevin Lennon sits down with ADU’s Jason Belzer to discuss the ongoing challenges and opportunities for the NCAA, tapping into his deep institutional knowledge of the organization to reflect on the current, complicated landscape of intercollegiate athletics. Lennon and Belzer discuss organizational structure and change management; issues around student-athlete employment; efforts by the membership to lobby Congress for support; and the recent efforts by the SEC and Big Ten conferences to provide leadership related to the rapid rate of change across Division I.

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing:

0:44 - You've been in your new role as head of policy and governance for the NCAA for six months. How have you transitioned into the new role and what have you been doing on a day-to-day basis?
1:53 - You have more institutional knowledge of how the NCAA works than any human on the planet. What does it take to change the NCAA?
4:44 - How do you get everybody on one page to move forward? What does it take to steer the ship that is the NCAA?
6:50 - How often are your constituents coming to you for help navigating issues such as student-athletes as employees? Are you helping them connect with their Congresspeople to ask for support?
9:25 - How are you approaching the task of moving the organization forward and how do you ensure everyone on your team stays focused regardless of some of the obstacles that come into the way?
11:38 - In a perfect scenario, what should the NCAA look like in five years?
13:53 - What's your opinion on the Big Ten and the SEC having discussions about going and doing their own thing? Would that look different from what they're doing now under the NCAA?
15:55 - Can the association move forward without worrying about what the Big Ten and SEC may do at some point?
17:50 - If you could go back to any point in your career and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it have been and when would it have been?