In August of 2005, Slive had his contract extended with the SEC until July 31, 2009.

"I am pleased that the Presidents have extended my contract as Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference," said Slive. "Through the efforts of our institutions and our conference office staff, we have been able to meet the goals, objectives and challenges that continue to make the SEC one of the nation's top intercollegiate athletic conferences. I look forward to working with our institutions in continuing to make the Southeastern Conference a place where our student-athletes can achieve excellence in their athletic and academic endeavors."

Since becoming SEC Commissioner, Slive has created committees within the SEC that are designed to assist member institutions in the operations of its athletics departments as well as how athletics operations fit within the academic mission of universities. Slive was instrumental in the development of the Sportsmanship and Fan Behavior Summit, a national forum held in February 2003, which brought together athletic, community and civic leaders as well as specialists to talk about sportsmanship and how to prevent inappropriate fan behavior. Slive also has developed an initiative to ensure gender and ethnic diversity in the SEC.

During his tenure, the SEC office has distributed a database to its institutions containing the names and biographies of every minority Division I Bowl Subdivision and National Football League head and assistant coach. The SEC Task Force on Compliance and Enforcement issued its first report to the league at the 2004 SEC Spring Meetings. The task force developed policies and procedures to assist league schools in NCAA & SEC compliance and enforcement matters.

In 2002-03, Slive served on the Commission of Athletic Opportunity, set up by the U.S. Secretary of Education to review the workings of Title IX. He was one of 15 panelists that consisted of former and current student-athletes, athletic and academic administrators and college professors from around the nation.

The creation of the SEC Academic Consortium, a program to increase academic cooperation across the league by linking the resources of the dozen universities in the SEC, was announced in 2005. The SEC created a partnership with The Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University to implement the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program at each of the 12 SEC institutions.

As Commissioner of the SEC, Slive has been instrumental in the operations of the Bowl Championship Series. He began a two-year stint as coordinator of the BCS in January 2007.

Since his arrival in Birmingham, Slive has not passed up many opportunities to speak to community, civic and business groups about the positive attributes of intercollegiate athletics and the SEC.

Prior to joining the SEC, Slive was the Commissioner of Conference USA. He was named the first-ever commissioner of the newly-formed league on April 24, 1995. Under his direction, Conference USA quickly emerged as one of the nation's top conferences.

Slive served as chair of the first NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee and is presently on the National Letter of Intent Steering Committee. He served as president of the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) from 2001-03, was also on the NCAA Management Council from 1997-2004 and is the former chair of the Board of Directors of NCAA Football USA. He is on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Marquette Sports Law Institute. He begins his fourth year on the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee.

The 66-year old Slive has also served on the Board of Directors of the Sports Lawyers Association from 1997-2001 and was chair of the Division I-A Commissioners from 1999-2001. He also was a member of the NCAA Division I Working Group to Study Basketball Issues in 1998-99. He was named to the Division I Men's Basketball Academic Enhancement Group during the summer of 2007.

Slive has an extensive administrative and legal background in intercollegiate athletics. He served as commissioner of the Great Midwest Conference since its formation in 1991, and played a pivotal role in the Great Midwest becoming one of the most successful and exciting conferences in the nation in the 1990's.

His previous athletic administrative experiences include: assistant director of athletics at Dartmouth College (1968-69), assistant Executive Director of the Pacific-10 Conference (1979-81), and Director of Athletics at Cornell University (1981-83), prior to developing his sports practice specializing in representing colleges and universities in athletic-related matters.

A native of Utica, N.Y., Slive was senior partner and founder of the Mike Slive-Mike Glazier Sports Group. Prior to the formation of the Slive-Glazier Sports Group in 1990, Slive was a partner in the Chicago law firm of Coffield Ungaretti Harris & Slavin. He operated his own practice in Hanover, N.H., and served as judge of the Hanover District Court from 1972-77.

Slive graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962. He earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia Law School in 1965 and an LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1966.

Slive and his wife, Elizabeth, are the parents of a daughter, Anna, who was the executive director of the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee of the 2007 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four.