The NCAA has announced that NCAA President Myles Brand has passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 67. We bloggers did not always have the most flattering things to say about Mr. Brand. But he did help design and implement the NCAA's Academic Progress Report (APR) and Graduation Success Rate (GSR) programs, while also pushing to raise the academic requirements for incoming student athletes. As NCAA President, you could be remembered for a lot worse things than doggedly pursuing higher academic standards. There was also some thing involving Bob Knight that now seems a lot less significant than it probably did at the time.

Our condolences to the Brand family.