Doug Elgin enters his 33rd year leading the Missouri Valley Conference and is now the longest-tenured commissioner currently employed at any of the NCAA’s multi-sport Division I conferences.
Since being named The Valley’s ninth commissioner on May 17, 1988, Elgin and his veteran staff have been catalysts in helping the St. Louis-based conference regain a position of prominence in college athletics, and can now reflect on a remarkable list of administrative and team sports achievements over the past three decades that have added to the MVC’s long, rich athletic tradition.
In the decade of the 1990s, Elgin and his colleagues oversaw the realignment and stabilization of the Missouri Valley membership as the league expanded by admitting Missouri State, Northern Iowa and Evansville -- also bringing women’s sports programs under the MVC’s administrative umbrella in 1992. The past eight years have seen the MVC admit new institutions Loyola Chicago (2013) and Valparaiso (2017) into the membership.
The league staff also paved the way to establish St. Louis as a long-term neutral site for the State Farm MVC Men’s Basketball Tournament, beginning in 1991— one of the most significant developments in the MVC’s modern era. The Conference celebrated the 30th anniversary of Arch Madness in St. Louis in 2020. The Valley also followed suit with its women’s basketball tournament, moving the event to a neutral site at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri, in 2008 before relocating the championship to the Quad Cities in 2016.
During Elgin’s tenure as commissioner, the league staff has also been a driving force in establishing the City of St. Louis as a frequent stop on the NCAA basketball tournament trail. In 1993, the MVC hosted the NCAA Men’s Midwest Regional at the venerable St. Louis Arena – a first step that began an incredible run that would see the staff manage 11 more NCAA basketball events at sporting venues in St. Louis, including the 2001 and 2009 Women’s Final Fours, the 2005 Men’s Final Four, and eight more men’s NCAA regional or first- and second-round tournaments.
And MVC sports have flourished in the modern era, with men’s and women’s basketball programs leading the way – each with two teams advancing to Final Fours, and amazing overall success in NCAA Tournament play. The overall performance of league athletics programs in virtually every sport continues to elevate the MVC’s national profile.
Elgin has been a member of both the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee (1999-2002) and the National Invitation Tournament Committee (2016-2019), and previous service has also included terms on the NCAA Administration Cabinet, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee and the NABC’s Ad Hoc Committee on NCAA Selection, Seeding and Bracketing.
In 45 years in college athletic administration, Elgin has worked at four institutions and in two conference offices. His career path has included stints as sports information director at Frostburg State University (1975-76), Miami-Dade Community College South (1976-77), Lafayette College (1977-80) and the University of Virginia (1980-83). Elgin moved on to the Tampa-based Sun Belt Conference in 1983, where he worked for five years as assistant commissioner under Commissioner Vic Bubas, the former Duke basketball coach and a member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
A native of Hagerstown, Maryland, Elgin is a 1973 graduate of Lafayette College, and he earned a Master’s degree in Sports Administration from Ohio University in 1975. Doug and his wife Melaine have six daughters and eight grandchildren.