NEW ORLEANS – The Sun Belt Conference has risen to new heights over the past decade, but it owes its start to an ascendant individual in his own right—its founding commissioner Vic Bubas. 
 
With the conference he helped found on the brink of its 50th anniversary season, it’s only fitting that Bubas was posthumously honored with the 2025 Tom Jernstedt Lifetime Achievement Award by Indiana Sports Corp at the 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Four in San Antonio, Texas. 

The Tom Jernstedt Lifetime Achievement Award was created in 2023 to honor those who best exemplify the leadership and service demonstrated by Jernstedt during his 38-year tenure at the NCAA, and who have made a meaningful impact on college basketball. Bubas’ immeasurable impact on Duke men’s basketball, the Sun Belt Conference and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament make him a worthy recipient in the third year of the award’s existence. 
 
Following a decorated playing career as a defense-oriented playmaker under legendary head coach Everett Case at NC State that included four-straight Southern Conference (SoCon) championships, a pair of all-conference seasons and a 1950 Final Four appearance, Bubas joined the basketball coaching ranks. 
 
He stayed on at his alma mater, first as freshman coach (1951-55) and later as a varsity assistant coach (1955-59), before Duke athletic director Eddie Cameron selected him over 150 other applicants for the Blue Devils head coaching job in 1960. 
 
Bubas is credited with pioneering the art of recruiting during his 10-year stint at the helm of the Duke program. A trailblazer, he was noted as the first coach to recruit juniors in high school and the first to assign his assistant coaches specific regions of the country to recruit. Bubas ushered in the era of national recruiting, as he and his assistants flew across the country to watch recruits play and meet them face-to-face. He went beyond the usual Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) boundaries—bringing in players from across the United States during his decade in Durham—and broke barriers by recruiting CB Claiborne in 1965—the first Black student-athlete at Duke. 
 
Bubas led Duke to its first ACC tournament championship in his first year at the helm in 1960—a sure-fire sign of things to come. Over his decade-long run with the Blue Devils (1959-69), he compiled a 213-67 record, won four ACC regular-season crowns (1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966) and tallied four ACC tournament titles (1960, 1963, 1964 and 1966). Bubas was a three-time ACC Coach of the Year (1963, 1964 and 1966) and led Duke to its first three Final Four appearances (1963, 1964 and 1966), becoming the first person to play and coach in the Final Four in the process. His Duke teams competed in the ACC tournament championship game in eight of his 10 seasons at the helm and were ranked in the Top 10 of the final AP Poll in seven of his 10 campaigns. 
 
In addition to revolutionizing recruiting, Bubas is recognized for elevating the profile of Duke men’s basketball from a regional contender to a national powerhouse. The Blue Devils had participated in the NCAA Tournament just once prior to his arrival, as a replacement for an NC State team on probation in 1955. Duke earned a bid to the Big Dance in Bubas’ first year and punched its ticket three more times during his storied tenure. With conference tournament championships as the lone method of NCAA Tournament entry during his era, Bubas fixated on ACC superiority and became wildly successful. 
 
Bubas remains the all-time leader in ACC tournament winning percentage (22-6, .786), ahead of coaching royalty Mike Krzyzewski (69-24, .742) and Dean Smith (58-23, .716). His 22 ACC tournament victories over 10 seasons are the fourth-most in conference history, trailing only Krzyzewski (69), Smith (58) and Roy Williams (29), who each amassed their totals over 18-or-more seasons in the conference. Bubas’ eight ACC tournament championship game appearances and four tournament titles also rank third in conference annals behind only Krzyzewski (22 championship game appearances, 15 titles) and Smith (21 championship game appearances, 13 titles). 
 
While at Duke, Bubas founded a basketball camp, started a weekly television show, added names to the back of players’ jerseys and brought in a pep band and dancers to enhance the atmosphere at Duke Indoor Stadium­—all revolutionary ideas at the time. 
 
His .761 winning percentage ranks third in school history—behind current head coach Jon Scheyer (.802, 89-22) and legendary head coach Krzyzewski (.766, 1,202-368)–and 21st all-time among NCAA Division I coaches with 10-or-more years of experience. Bubas’ 213 victories rank third all-time for the Blue Devils, trailing only Krzyzewski (1,202-368) and Cameron (226-99)—who hired him in 1960 in his latter role as athletic director and had the Duke men’s basketball arena renamed Cameron Indoor Stadium in his honor in 1972. 
 
After retiring from coaching in 1969, at the age of 42, Bubas remained on campus as a member of Duke University’s administration, eventually ascending to the role of Vice President of Community Relations. 
 
In 1976, Bubas began a 14-year stint as the founding commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, a role he held until his retirement in 1990. He led the conference during a period in which its membership increased from six to eight members and its sport sponsorship grew from four to 10 sports. 
 
During his Sun Belt tenure, Bubas also served on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee from 1980-85, an era that saw the bracket expand to 48 teams in 1980, 52 in 1983, 53 in 1984 and finally 64 in 1985 under Bubas’ leadership as committee chair—becoming the March Madness tournament fans know and love to this day. 
 
For his contributions to college basketball and college athletics, Bubas has been inducted into the North Carolina Sports (1975), Duke Athletics (1977), Indiana Basketball (2002), National Collegiate Basketball (2007) and Gary Sports (2023) Halls of Fame. 
 
He died on April 16, 2018, at the age of 91, having seen the Duke men’s basketball program—with 126 NCAA Tournament victories (third-most all-time), 47 NCAA Tournament appearances (fifth-most all-time), a conference-record 23 ACC tournament titles, 21 ACC regular-season crowns (second-most all-time), 18 Final Fours (fourth-most all-time) and five NCAA national championships (fifth-most all-time); the Sun Belt Conference—a 12-member Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) league sponsoring 18 sports, which has since grown to 14 members and 20 sponsored sports; and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament—the NCAA’s flagship postseason event and appointment viewing nationwide from mid-March to early April each year—rise to new heights based on the vision he possessed, the trailblazing steps he took and the foundation he laid across his decades-long career in college athletics.
 
As it approaches its 50th anniversary season in 2026, the Sun Belt Conference continues rising, with its annual all sports championship trophy carrying the name the “Vic Bubas Cup” in honor of its late founding commissioner, whose pioneering spirit, steadfast leadership and service-oriented mindset made a meaningful impact and left a lasting legacy on college basketball and college athletics at large.