November 25, 2025
How Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade became a sports ‘pioneer’
Tamika Williams-Jeter: 'That's something she can hold a legacy on — that now young women think they can be commissioners'
Dayton head coach Tamika Williams-Jeter first met current Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade at a Final Four when she was a student-athlete at UConn and McGlade worked for the ACC. Williams-Jeter has since seen the impact McGlade has had on women’s basketball.
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“Bernie is a female commissioner. That’s rare,” Williams-Jeter told The IX Basketball. “I think we have a couple other ones, but she’s one of the originals to be commissioner over a power conference and grow it. … So I think that’s something she can hold a legacy on — that now young women think they can be commissioners, not just ADs [athletic directors] or assistant commissioners.”
On Nov. 19, McGlade announced that she will be retiring at the end of the 2025-26 academic year — after serving in her position since 2008. McGlade told reporters on Nov. 20 that the public announcement and the timing of the retirement itself were both intentional.
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“The public announcement allows for there to be a national search,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be rushed. I’m gonna be staying on board all the way through to the end of the year . … But in terms of just my overall decision, I think 45 years in the business is a pretty good reason to maybe think about retiring. … The timing is good because … there are things that are cyclical within Division I conferences, and the league is in really good shape.”
The A-10 is just the third stop for McGlade, who previously served as a head coach and in administration at Georgia Tech from 1981-97 and worked for the ACC from 1997-2008.
McGlade was the tournament director for the 1993 NCAA Women’s Final Four, and the marketing plan she implemented led to the first advanced sellout of an NCAA Women’s Final Four. She also served as the 1996 Olympic Games liaison for the Georgia Tech Athletic Association (GTAA) and worked on GTAA’s strategic plan.
Over the course of her career, McGlade has served on several NCAA committees, including the NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Committee — chairing it in 1999 and 2000 — the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, the NCAA Division I Council and the Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee. She also served as the Collegiate Commissioner’s Association (CCA) president.
McGlade’s goals remain the same as she approaches her final months as commissioner.
“We wanna have successful regular season games. … We wanna be able to have fabulous winter and spring championship opportunities,” she said. “Working with our membership, we’ll have the NCAA Convention, it’s gonna be right here in Washington, D.C. … And we’ll be basically business as usual. … So, my goal is just to continue to fulfill my job responsibilities.”
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During her tenure with the A-10, McGlade oversaw a period of change among the member schools with the departure of Butler, Charlotte, Temple and Xavier in 2013 and the addition of VCU in 2012, George Mason in 2013 and Davidson in 2014. The conference also welcomed Loyola Chicago in 2022 and saw UMass leave in 2025.
McGlade has negotiated multiple media rights agreements as commissioner, with the most recent one taking effect at the start of the 2024-25 season. Additionally, the A-10 expanded its championship sports offerings by adding men’s lacrosse and women’s golf during her tenure.
Under McGlade’s leadership, the Atlantic 10 most recently moved the women’s basketball tournament to the Henrico Sports & Events Center in Glen Allen, Virginia, in 2024. In 2025, the conference extended the partnership through 2029.
According to McGlade, “there’s nothing like seeing student-athletes win championships.” Some of the “great moments” of her tenure with the A-10 were when she was at conference tournaments.
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Before she started working in the sports industry, McGlade was an early beneficiary of Title IX, earning a scholarship to play basketball at North Carolina.
“From a family economic perspective, that was critical in my ability to be able to go to college and earn a degree, and then a master’s degree, and then, really, to have a career in the profession,” she said.
McGlade is second in North Carolina history in total rebounds (1,251 in 121 games) and first in rebounds per game (10.3).
After McGlade finished her career on the court and earned her master’s degree from North Carolina, she was hired at Georgia Tech at the age of 23 to be the school’s women’s basketball head coach and the first full-time female coach. She led the team to its first winning season in 1986-87 and its first win over a ranked team, No. 13 Maryland, in 1988.
Over the last several decades, McGlade has enjoyed watching the acceptance and celebration of not just women’s basketball but women’s sports as a whole, including in the A-10.
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“I think that the rising tide has really lifted all boats,” she said. “I think in the Atlantic 10, we’ve really been able to stabilize our women’s basketball programs. Last year, obviously, [we sent] multiple teams to the NCAA [Tournament] … having Richmond get a first-round win. …
“I think all of our member institutions are committed to funding their women’s basketball program. They see the value for not only their own institutions and their own programs, but in the long run, these are gonna be women that are so successful in society. And they’re the graduates of your university that you want [to] come back and support your university at a later date.”
Over the course of her career, McGlade has earned numerous awards, including the WBCA National Administrator of the Year (2000), the Kay Yow Outstanding Female in Sports award (from the YWCA of Greensboro, N.C., 2008), and she was honored as Administrator of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) in 2014. She was also named one of Sports Business Journal’s (SBJ) National Game Changers (2014) and an SBJ Power Player in Women’s Sports (2024).
McGlade was also inducted into the Georgia Tech Athletic Association Hall of Fame and the South Jersey Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and was the first person to be named an ACC Legend as a player and a coach.
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McGlade doesn’t think she’ll be leaving any legacy on women’s basketball, but coaches around the A-10 disagree.
“She’s helped individual schools realize the opportunity of prioritizing women’s basketball,” St. Bonaventure head coach Jim Crowley told The IX Basketball. “And she’s really been a great partner when schools have decided to do that, and also has been a great motivator to help schools understand how to do that. … Just making sure people know how important and what value women’s basketball brings to an athletic department and a university.”
Dan Burt has been Duquesne’s head coach since 2013 and has seen firsthand the stability she’s brought to the conference.
“We’ve been able to remain steady without the boat rocking too much in terms of our conference and its ranking through her tenure,” Burt told The IX Basketball. “And I don’t think that’s easy to do when you’re in a basketball-centric conference, and you’ve had so much change on a national scale … She’s been able to always steady the ship and keep things moving in a positive direction.”
Rhode Island head coach Tammi Reiss appreciates everything McGlade has done for women’s basketball over the decades and believes she “deserves to be in the Hall of Fame for a commitment to excellence and growing our game throughout the decades of her service.”
“She was a pioneer and a champion when women’s basketball wasn’t cool, when it was nothing. …” Reiss told The IX Basketball. “Bernie has not gotten the recognition she deserves, ’cause there are certain women that have been in this fight for decades to finally see our game grow and come to fruition. … She should have the word ‘pioneer’ next to her name.”
Written by Natalie Heavren
Natalie Heavren has been a contributor to The IX Basketball since February 2019 and currently writes about the Atlantic 10 conference, the WNBA and the WBL.
