Sam Edwards Appointed to NCAA Division I Board of Directors as Student-Athlete Representative
10/23/2025 3:26:00 PM | Football
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State sixth-year graduate senior linebacker Sam Edwards has been appointed as a student-athlete representative on the current NCAA Division I Board of Directors, which is the highest ranking governing body for Division I.
The board has oversight of the Division I budget, select litigation matters and infractions processes. The new NCAA Division I governance structure was announced in August 2025 and features a significant increase in student-athlete participation, including the ability to vote on governance and sports oversight committees.
To serve and represent the voice of football student-athletes at the highest level is a great honor and privilege, said Edwards. I look forward to listening, learning, and engaging with the presidents, chancellors and commissioners on the board to ensure a future for the sport that we can all be proud of. Go Green!
The next board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 28.
The current NCAA Division I Board of Directors features 17 members (14 voting):
- Four representatives from the autonomy conferences (one from each conference):
- Timothy Sands (FBS-ACC, President, Virginia Tech)
- Darryll Pines (FBS-Big Ten, President, Maryland)
- Glenn Boyce (FBS-SEC, Chancellor, Mississippi)
- Doug Girod (FBS-Big 12, Chancellor, Kansas)
- Two representatives from the nonautonomy Football Bowl Subdivision conferences:
- Phillip Rogers (FBS, Chancellor, East Carolina)
- Brian Sandoval (FBS, President, Nevada-Reno)
- Two representatives from the Football Championship Subdivision conferences and one representative from either the Football Championship Subdivision or Division I Subdivision conferences:
- Brian Noland (FCS, President, East Tennessee State)
- Quinton Ross (FCS, President, Alabama State)
- Houston Davis (FCS, President, Central Arkansas)
- Two representatives from the Division I Subdivision conferences:
- Mark C. Reed (Division I, President, Loyola University Chicago)
- Christopher Pietruszkiewicz (DI, President, Evansville)
- Three student-athlete representatives:
- Sam Edwards, Michigan State (football student-athlete)
- Men's basketball/women's basketball student-athlete (TBA)
- Meredith Page (DI, Division I SAAC Representative, Radford)
- One faculty athletics representative (nonvoting):
- Pam Bruzina (FBS, Faculty Athletics Representative, Missouri)
- Chair of the Division I cabinet (nonvoting):
- Josh Whitman (FBS, Director of Athletics, Illinois)
- NCAA President (nonvoting):
- Charlie Baker, NCAA President
Edwards has already been representing Michigan State on a national level, serving as the Big Ten representative on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee Student-Athlete Connection Group. He has also served on Michigan State's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for three years.
A four-year letterwinner who has played in 36 career games at MSU, Edwards is in his sixth year with the Spartans and was voted a co-captain by his teammates for the 2025 season. He has excelled in the classroom throughout his entire Spartan career and has provided leadership for the program both on and off the field.
The Williamston, Michigan, native and Lansing Catholic product earned Academic All-District honors for the second consecutive season in 2024, and was on the final ballot for the Academic All-America Team. He also garnered Academic All-Big Ten honors for the fourth year in a row and has earned the team's Scholar-Athlete Award three straight years.
Earlier this fall, Edwards was named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, which is considered the nation's premier scholar-athlete award in college football.
Edwards graduated with a double major in political theory and constitutional democracy / international relations in May 2024, finished his minor in political economy in December 2024, and started a master's program in marketing research in the 2025 spring semester. He finished with a 3.904 undergraduate GPA and currently owns a perfect 4.0 GPA in graduate school.
On the field, Edwards plays on multiple special teams units, and he has also served as the team's long snapper on field goals and PATs during portions of the past two seasons.
Edwards has also helped with numerous community events throughout his time in East Lansing, including: student-athlete food drive; Beautiful Lives Project; Jack Breslin/McLaren Golf Classic volunteer; March is Reading Month; Be the Match – Bone Marrow Registry; peer tutoring service; visits to the Sparrow Hospital pediatric ward; and Teams for Toys.
Edwards becomes just the fourth-ever football player to serve on the NCAA Division I Board of Directors (Chris Paul, Tulsa; Ryan Cassidy, Rutgers; Josh Emmanuel, University of Incarnate Word) and the first on the newly constituted DI Board after the NCAA governance model restructuring in August 2025.
