LAS VEGAS — One by one, each administrator walked into a nondescript conference room on the sixth floor of the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort and Spa, located a ways away from the Strip. They dressed professionally but comfortably, as has become the norm after two years of video conferencing followed by, finally, a return to in-person meetings.
You wouldn’t know just by a quick glance that these are the people both pitied and feared by the rest of the NCAA’s Division I. The Committee on Infractions is the entity that metes out punishment for bad behavior, but it is also a group that is trying hard to define its role in an ever-evolving collegiate sports model. It wants to encourage more cooperation, and it wants to punish the adults, not the athletes. This is a largely thankless job, but someone has to do it. Actually, about two dozen someones.
“For me, it’s about being part of the solution and not just sitting back on campus and complaining about decisions,” said Tricia Brandenburg, Army’s executive associate athletic director and a COI member in her first term.
“The enterprise is at a crossroads,” said outgoing Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference commissioner Rich Ensor, set to retire this summer after more than three decades in college sports. “There’s so…
