The Mountain West has selected its commissioner, Craig Thompson, to represent its league on the NCAA Tournament men's basketball selection committee.

Thompson will take the seat of Paul Krebs, who served just one year of his five-year term this past season. Krebs is the outgoing New Mexico athletic director; he retired in the midst of a controversy that included tens of thousands of dollars of public money spent by Krebs on himself and others for an overseas golf trip. In order to serve on the NCAA Tournament selection committee, you just be employed by an NCAA-affiliated institution. 

With Krebs leaving, he had to be replaced by someone within the Mountain West. In steps Thompson, who will not be new to the job. He is the rare case of a two-time committee member. Thompson previously served on the committee during the 64-team era, from 1995-96 through 1999-2000, serving as the committee chair in his final season. 

Thompson joins former North Carolina and Navy men's basketball coach Ben Carnevale in the small club of two-time members on the committee. 

The committee will meet July 10-13 in Chicago to discuss potential significant changes to the seeding and selection process. For instance, implementing a composite metric system and/or dialing back the influence of the long-used RPI on the NCAA's official team sheet evaluations could be up for a change. The committee is also expected to look at how it values home, neutral and road outcomes in a more systematic and fair way. 

The 2017-18 selection committee is:

  • Bruce Rasmussen, athletic director, Creighton University — 2017-18 chair
  • Mitch Barnhart, athletic director, University of Kentucky
  • Tom Burnett, commissioner, Southland Conference
  • Janet Cone, athletic director, University of North Carolina at Asheville
  • Bernard Muir, athletic director, Stanford University
  • Jim Phillips, athletic director, Northwestern University
  • Jim Schaus, athletic director, Ohio University
  • Craig Thompson, commissioner, Mountain West
  • Kevin White, athletic director, Duke University
  • *Keith Gill, executive associate commissioner, Atlantic 10

*Gill needs to be formally nominated and voted in for a second time, as he was cleared as a board member while the athletic director of Richmond. Since his job has changed, rules dictate he must go through the process once more, and is anticipated to be officially added to the committee under his new title later this year.