Dec. 12, 2006

Cleveland, Ohio - The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) announced today that NBC Chairman Dick Ebersol will give the keynote address at the 42nd annual NACDA Convention, which will be held June 7-10 at the World Center Marriott Resort in Orlando (FL).

Ebersol was named chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics in May 2005, after serving as chairman of NBC Sports & Olympics since June 1998. He is responsible for all sports programming on the NBC and USA networks, along with overseeing every aspect of NBC Universal's involvement with the Olympic Games.

In 1967, Ebersol began his storied career, joining ABC Sports as television's first-ever Olympic researcher. In 1974, he joined NBC as Director of Weekend Late Night Programming. He and Lorne Michaels conceived and developed Saturday Night Live. Named Vice President, Late Night Programming at age 28, Ebersol became the networks first-ever vice president under the age of 30. Ebersol left NBC for a few years and returned in 1989 as president of NBC Sports.

Ebersol has withstood three decades in television, including securing NBC Universal as the home of the Olympic Games through 2012. He has served as the executive producer of NBC's Olympic coverage since the 1992 Barcelona Games and was instrumental in helping NBC Universal present 24-hour, around-the-clock coverage during the 2004 Olympic Games.

He has also secured contract renewals with the USGA, PGA Tour, Ryder Cup, French Open and Wimbledon, while also adding the Visa Triple Crown and NASCAR to the NBC Sports programming lineup, with long-term agreements that began in 2001. NBC is also home to Notre Dame football.

In 2005, Ebersol brought the NFL back to NBC after the network walked away from the league in 1998. He negotiated an unprecedented six-year NFL deal, which encompasses more than four hours of NFL coverage, including the Sunday premier primetime game of the week, "NBC's Sunday Night NFL Football." The network uses an innovative flexible scheduling model in the last seven weeks of the season, allowing it to shift afternoon games to primetime to ensure more meaningful games are shown on national television.

Throughout the years, Ebersol has been regularly among the top-10 honorees on The Sporting News' annual list of the 100 most powerful sports figures, including 1996 when he was named the publication's Most Powerful Person in Sports. He has also earned the Olympic Order and the March of Dimes Corporate Leadership Award. Ebersol has also been inducted into both the U.S. Olympic and Broadcasting & Cable Halls of Fame. He was also presented the Dick Schaap Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports in 2003.