Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher enters his first year with the Mid-American Conference after being named the league’s eighth commissioner on March 16, 2009. Dr. Steinbrecher comes to the MAC after serving six years as commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference. Prior to the OVC, he served as commissioner of the Mid-Continent Conference (now known as the Summit League).

In his first six years with the OVC, Dr. Steinbrecher significantly increased the league’s exposure through additional television coverage at the regional and national level. In 2005, he negotiated a five-year contract with ESPN that secured increased exposure for the league. That included being the first conference to sign a deal to have games appear on ESPNU, ESPN’s 24-hour college sports network; the OVC had the first sporting event telecast on that network (the 2005 OVC Men’s Basketball Tournament Semifinal).

Steinbrecher secured an invitation for the OVC to participate in ESPN’s BracketBusters event, something every team has done in each of the past three years. He also implemented Conference merchandising and corporate partner programs and in February 2008 negotiated a five-year agreement with IMG College to manage the OVC’s multimedia rights and sponsorship sales.

In July 2006 Steinbrecher helped spearhead a venture into streaming video with the launch of OVCSports.TV. The multimedia platform, in association with JumpTV Sports, provides live and on-demand coverage of every OVC football and men’s and women’s basketball game as well as selected other sports, coaches’ shows, press conferences and special events. In its two years of existence, OVCSports.TV has streamed over 800 events and recorded nearly 5,000 paid subscribers. The league’s official Web site – OVCSports.com – also experienced unprecedented growth over the past year, as it registered just under 1.4 million page impressions during the school year.

In June 2008 Steinbrecher announced the addition of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to the Conference’s membership. The institution, which became an official member of the Conference on July 1, gave the Conference a footprint in the St. Louis media market and gave the league 11 member institutions.

Under his leadership, the league re-emphasized its commitment to sportsmanship by implementing a series of good sports initiatives, including sportsmanship affidavits signed by coaches and administrators, student-athlete ethical conduct orientation and an institutional and team sportsmanship awards. Dr. Steinbrecher also initiated a Conference Basketball Issues Committee and oversaw increased promotional efforts for the OVC Basketball Tournament, which resulted in an increase in ticket sales revenue.

Dr. Steinbrecher also spearheaded the efforts in bidding for, and ultimately securing, the 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Final Four for Nashville.

In addition to his work at the Mid-Con and OVC, Dr. Steinbrecher has served on several prominent NCAA committees, including the Division I Basketball Issues Committee, serving as a member of subcommittees for both men’s and women’s basketball, and in 1999 he became the first non-Division I-A commissioner elected as president of the Collegiate Commissioner’s Association (CCA). In June 2007 he was appointed to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Academic Enhancement Group by NCAA President Myles Brand; the group is charged to develop strategies to enhance academic performance and graduation rates in Division I men’s basketball. In September 2008 he began a three-year term on the NCAA Division I Legislative Council.

Dr. Steinbrecher has also served as Division I-AAA vice president of the CCA and as a member of the National Invitation Tournament’s District IV Advisory Board. He just concluded a term on the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Athletics Certification. In addition, he served a one-year term as the Division I-AA vice president of the CCA.

Prior to being named Mid-Continent Conference Commissioner in Nov. 1994, Dr. Steinbrecher had previously served the league as Director of Communications, Director of Marketing and Communications and Assistant Commissioner. He joined the Mid-Con staff in 1989 after previously serving in the athletics departments at Houston Baptist University, Indiana University and Davidson College.

Dr. Steinbrecher is a 1983 graduate of Valparaiso University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in physical education and journalism. In 2006 he was bestowed an Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater. Steinbrecher graduated with a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University in 1984, and he was awarded the doctorate of physical education in sports administration from Indiana University in 1989.

An all-conference and academic all-conference selection in football and a conference champion in tennis, Dr. Steinbrecher was named Valparaiso’s and the Heartland Collegiate Conference’s Student-Athlete of the Year in 1983. In 2006 he was inducted into the Watauga County (N.C.) Sports Hall of Fame.

Active in the community, Dr. Steinbrecher is the past chair of the Board of Education at Our Savior Lutheran Academy in Nashville. He was also a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Nashville Sports Council, serving as the chair of the Events Committee.

Dr. Steinbrecher and his wife Anne have three children, daughter Grace and twin sons Matt and Will.

Steinbrecher follows Rick Chryst, who served as the MAC Commissioner since 1999. David Reese served as the MAC’s first commissioner from 1946-64, followed by Bob James (1964-71), Fred Jacoby (1971-82), Jim Lessig (1982-90), Karl Benson (1990-94), Jerry Ippoliti (1994-99), and Chryst.