Mike Eades joined the American Conference in May of 2020 as coordinator of men’s basketball officiating. Eades also serves as the manager of the officiating consortium that consists of the SEC, the American, Sun Belt and ASUN conferences.
In his role as coordinator of men’s basketball officiating, Eades, who brings over 20 years of collegiate basketball officiating experience and was three times selected to officiate the Final Four, is in charge of selection, training and evaluation along with the assignment of officials for men’s basketball games hosted by American member institutions.
Eades has vast experience as an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament official, highlighted by Final Fours in 2015, 2016 and 2017. His career also includes four Sweet 16 assignments and five Elite 8 assignments.
He has served as an official in the American, SEC, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic 10, CAA and Big South games while also holding the position of Supervisor of Men’s Basketball Officials for the Mountain East Conference, a role he has held since 2013, and the River States Conference since 2018.
Eades’ basketball officiating career began in 1992 in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and he also officiated for the Horizon League, Summit League, Big South and Mid-American Conference early in his career.
A native of Princeton, West Virginia, Eades graduated from Bluefield State College (W.Va.), but prior to that played basketball at Lees-McRae College (N.C.) and was later inducted into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012. Eades and his wife, Gina, have one son, Anthony.