SAN DIEGO (AP) — Cedric Dempsey, the former NCAA president who helped turn Arizona into a national power as athletic director before leading the national organization through key years of transition and growth, died Saturday in San Diego, the NCAA said. He was 92.
Dempsey was revered as an administrator on campus. His nine-year tenure as the NCAA's leader included moving its headquarters and significant fiscal growth for the organization, including landmark television deals worth billions.
“Ced was instrumental in shaping the NCAA as it moved into the new century, overseeing a restructuring of the organization, and strengthening the foundation of college sports for years that followed his tenure,” current NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement released by the organization.
“His impact on the lives of student-athletes and administrators across the nation will be felt for years to come," Baker said.
Dempsey oversaw the organization’s move from the Kansas City suburbs to Indianapolis in 1999 and helped reimagine how the governing body could work best in the 21st century.
His most enduring legacy may be the role he played in creating television deals with ESPN and CBS that brought in $6.2 billion over an 11-year span.
Dempsey charmed his way through it all with a smile and wit that was lauded throughout the headquarters and the college sports world.
“Twenty-one years ago, Cedric painted a picture for me that I could one day be an athletic director,” current Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois said in a statement. “His guidance helped me see a calling I never knew could be possible. I am forever grateful for the impact he had on the trajectory of my career and on my life as a whole. He will be deeply missed by our family and by everyone in the University of Arizona community.”
Reed-Francois first met Dempsey when she was serving as an associate athletic director for Compliance and as the Senior Woman Administrator at Fresno State.
Dempsey's hires in Tucson included coaches such as Lute Olson and Dick Tomey, who became iconic figures for Wildcats fans. During his 11-year tenure, Arizona teams won five national team championships, 39 individual NCAA titles and 17 Pac-10 crowns.
He also served as the men’s basketball selection committee chairman in 1988-89.
Dempsey grew up in Equality, Illinois, and went on to play football, basketball and baseball at Albion College in Michigan. From 1959-62, he served as the men’s basketball and cross country coach at his alma mater before stepping back in 1963 to become an assistant basketball coach.
In 1965, he started a 46-year career in administration by becoming an associate athletic director also at Albion. He left there to be the athletic director at Pacific in California, before stints at San Diego State and Houston before moving to Arizona in 1983.
Dempsey left Arizona in 1994 to become the sixth executive director/president in NCAA history, and it was there he became a national figure.
“I think the NCAA is where it is today because of Ced,” former NCAA executive committee chairman Bob Lawless said when Dempsey announced he was retiring in January 2002. “He has been a real treasure for the NCAA.”
He also served as commissioner of the All-American Football League from 2007-10 and battled cancer three times. Dempsey is a member of multiple Halls of Fame and is survived by his wife, June, and two children.
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FILE - NCAA President Cedric Dempsey speaks during a news conference at the Final Four in Minneapolis, March 29, 2001. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke, File)
Two more American-owned clubs are headed for the Premier League in what is shaping up to be a tension-filled finale to the second-tier Championship.
The question is: Which two?
The top three of Leeds, Burnley and Sheffield United are separated by two points with five rounds remaining.
Two of them will be making a quick return to the lucrative Premier League, ensuring an estimated revenue uplift of around $180 million in projected matchday, broadcast and commercial revenue — and much more if they were to survive the first season back in the top flight.
One of them will drop into the four-team playoffs and all of the end-of-season uncertainty that brings.
For Burnley and Sheffield United, promotion would mean just a one-season stay in the Championship, while Leeds is in its second season back at that level.
So all three teams are among a cluster of clubs — throw in Norwich, West Bromwich Albion and Southampton, too — which are regularly in the frame to yo-yo between the top two divisions.
Whoever does get promoted will join a growing band of Premier League clubs under U.S. ownership.
It already contains Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool and Manchester United. Ipswich is also on that list but is headed for relegation.
Here's a closer look at Leeds, Burnley and Sheffield United, and their run-ins:
A three-time English champion, Leeds is historically the biggest of the three teams and has the most renowned owners: The San Francisco-based 49ers Enterprises group whose shareholders include American golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Acquiring a minority stake last May was Red Bull, the energy drink company whose other soccer interests include owning Leipzig in Germany.
Leeds is getting a reputation for being an end-of-season choker — last campaign, it fell out of the promotion spots after winning two of its last eight regular-season games, then lost the playoff final to Southampton — and the same might be happening again.
The team managed by Daniel Farke is stumbling, winning just two of its last seven games to get reeled back in by Sheffield United and Burnley.
Leeds will not want to drop into the playoffs again because it has failed to win promotion via that route in its six previous attempts.
Leeds hosts Preston on Saturday.
Majority-owned since 2020 by the ALK Capita investment group fronted by U.S. businessman Alan Pace, Burnley also has former NFL star J.J. Watt as a notable shareholder.
This historic club — founded in 1882 — was managed by Vincent Kompany in its most recent season in the Premier League. He left to join Bayern Munich after relegation and Burnley's latest coach is Scott Parker, the former England midfielder who has instilled a record-breaking robustness in the team.
The Clarets didn't concede a goal in 12 consecutive matches in the league from Dec. 26-Feb. 21, a record for the second tier. In its 41 league games in total, they have racked up 29 clean sheets.
The key game in the run-in is set to be at home to Sheffield United on April 21.
Burnley's next game is at home to Norwich on Friday.
The Blades started the season on -2 points after being punished for defaulting on payments to other clubs during its last promotion season in the Championship, in 2022-23.
Given they sit two points adrift of the top two, that sanction might prove pivotal — though they were leading the Championship as recently as a week ago, only to lose to Oxford and Millwall in their last two outings.
United is newly under American ownership, with the COH Sports consortium led by Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy completing a takeover in December to end the five-year tenure of Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, from Saudi Arabia.
The team visits last-placed Plymouth on Saturday.
Sunderland, most recently in the Premier League in 2016-17 and the subject of a Netflix series documenting its struggles, is seven points behind Sheffield United in fourth place and guaranteed a playoff place.
The other two teams occupying the playoff positions are Bristol City and Coventry, with Middlesbrough two points further back in seventh.
Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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Leeds United's Wilfried Gnonto celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game during a Sky Bet Championship soccer match against Swansea City, Saturday, March 29, 2025, at Elland Road in Leeds, England. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
