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Big 12 Board of Directors Agree with Commissioner Bob Bowlsby on His Exit Plan

April 5, 2022
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STILLWATER – The Big 12 Conference Board of Directors, headed by chairperson and Texas Tech University President Lawrence Schovanec, made the decision to seperate from Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. The board cited failure to perform as the primary reason for the change which will take place over a three-month (90-days) period. Pokes Report has also learned that the Board of Directors also felt the need to have somebody better versed in television contract negotiations and even more astute on dealing with the television networks and other potential multimedia partners. The move was actually made last week but the parties waited to make the announcement on April 5.

The release from the Big 12 Conference laid out a mutual decision between the parites, but this was initiated by the Board. The terms will be favorable and will accommodate Bowlsby as he has been an effective leader during most of his time as commissioner. 

"After more than 40 years of serving in leadership roles in intercollegiate athletics, including the last 10 with the Big 12, and given the major issues that college sports in general and the Big 12 specifically will address in the next several years, I have reached a natural transition point in my tenure as Commissioner, as well as in my career," Bowlsby was quoted in the release.

The release also said Bowlsby would transition into a new role in the conference as his contract is paid out. The contract runs through 2025.

“On behalf of the Big 12 Conference, I want to extend my sincere appreciation to Commissioner Bowlsby for his outstanding leadership over the last decade,” Dr. Schovanec (Texas Tech President and Big 12 Board chair) said. “Bob has consistently driven distributable revenue growth for the Conference’s member institutions, has stood strong during turbulent times in the world of collegiate sports, has led innovation within collegiate athletics, and has worked tirelessly to ensure the stability and future of the Big 12 Conference.”

Dr. Schovanec also thanked Bowlsby for staying with the conference in a future role and assisting with the transition to the new commissioner.

No replacement was immediately identified by the Big 12 Board. The 90-days gives the Big 12 Board of Directors time to identify the next leaders of the conference. The exit plan was a negotiated part of the process to make a change at the top of the conference leadership.

That perception of performance failure stems from iast summer and the abrupt departure of blue blood football schools University of Texas and University of Oklahoma to the Southeastern Conference. It looked poor as Bowlsby had worked two years plus in a small-assigned working group for the College Football Playoff on expansion with three others including SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. How could Bowlsby work with Sankey so closely for an extended period and be caught completely off guard when two of his top schools left for Sankey’s conference?

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics
Bob Bowlsby (back to camera) met with Dr. Shrum, Vice-President Kyle Wray, and aathletics director Chad Weiberg at Big 12 Football Media Days just before UT and OU left the conference.

Actually, Big 12 Presidents and Chancellors that make up the Big 12 Board of Directors later learned that Bowlsby had been warned. First by former Oklahoma State University athletic director Mike Holder and then later new Oklahoma State University President Dr. Kayse Shrum had warned Bowlsby that the University of Oklahoma was contemplating a move to the SEC.

Bowlsby’s response reportedly was that he slept well at night knowing that Oklahoma and Texas loved the Big 12 and would never leave.

It would later prompt a remark made in a teleconference meeting between the Big 12 Board and Bowlsby after OU and Texas departed where the commissioner was asked, “How he was sleeping now?”

Bowlsby admitted to D Magazine last October that the ordeal was rough. It started as soon as he landed in Dallas from a trip to Kansas on the day the rumors broke of Texas and Oklahoma departing.

“As I got off the plane, the first thing I did was call the athletic directors and presidents at UT and OU, then I called [SEC commissioner] Greg Sankey to try and find out what in the world is going on,” Bowlsby told D Magazine. “It took much longer than I would’ve wanted to get ahold of them. I kept getting their voicemails.

“It was during the course of the next couple of days [that] we finally talked and got a little more understanding of whether or not this news was going to actually move forward,” Bowlsby continued. “At this point, both parties were pretty noncommittal. No decisions had been made. But I felt [in these conversations], the SEC probably already had them.”

Robert Allen - Pokes Report
The new teams are a postive, but can’t match the attraction of Texas and Oklahoma.

Bowlsby would later go on a crash course visiting (in order) BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida, and Houston and quickly urged the Big 12 members to welcome those four schools in as future members that would help make up for the loss of Texas and Oklahoma. The Big 12 membership and Bowlsby were unified on the move. The Big 12 members are still positive about the addition of the new schools, but the impending multimedia rights negotiations and what the loss of UT and OU will mean are devastating to think about.

The SEC has already negotiated its’ future contract and the addition of Texas and Oklahoma is factored in. The Big Ten is expected to have a very lucrative contract negotiation for their television and multimedia rights coming up later this year. Industry analytics have the Big 12, Pac-12, and ACC significantly behind the SEC and Big Ten. There is genuine concern about the conference revenue and annual payouts to members coming in the future. The Pac-12 hired George Kliavkoff away from the MGM Entertainment empire this past summer to take over as their commissioner. The Pac-12 is coming up after the Big Ten on their multimedia rights negotiations. Both are before the Big 12. Bob Bowlsby did negotiate that past television contract for the league with ESPN and ESPN+ for the Big 12 Now streaming network and with FOX Television.

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Bob Bowlsby has had his high points and low times both.

There are also thoughts that conference realignment may not be through and there could be more. The confidence of Bowlsby fostering the Big 12 into a position of power is apparently low.  

Bowlsby has been very involved in the College Football Playoff and its’ emergence. The Big 12 has had success with Bowlsby at the helm including Monday night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship won by Kansas. Bowlsby was sitting prominently behind the Jayhawks bench.

The league has seen 25 national championships and 160 plus individual NCAA champions.  In 2020-21, the Big 12 captured five team national championships and five runner-up finishes, including Baylor’s men’s basketball title. Twelve teams have competed in College Football Playoff New Year’s Bowls in the seven years of the structure with Oklahoma making the Conference’s first appearance in the CFP semifinals in 2015 and repeat showings in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Prior to his role at the Big 12, Bowlsby was athletics director at Stanford for six-years. He was the athletics director at Iowa for 15-years.

He has always been a leader and highly involved in collegiate and amateur sports following his own collegiate career at the University of Northern Iowa where he competed as a wrestler. He was appointed to the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors in 2007 and completed that term at the 2014 Winter Olympiad in Sochi, Russia. In 2002, President George W. Bush chose Bowlsby to be a member of the Commission on Opportunities in Athletics, which reviewed the first 30 years of Title IX.

Bowlsby has previously served as president of the NCAA Division I-A Athletics Directors’ Association, chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee (2003-04, ’04-05) and chaired the NCAA Management Council.  In addition, he has also chaired the NCAA Wrestling Committee, served on NCAA committees on Financial Aid and Amateurism, the Special Committee to Review Amateurism Issues and the Special Committee to Review Financial Conditions in Athletics. 

(The Big 12 Conference and it’s staff bios contributed to this report.)

Discussion from...

Big 12 Board of Directors Agree with Commissioner Bob Bowlsby on His Exit Plan

10,148 Views | 12 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by GumbyFromPokeyLand
TUSKAPOKE
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Goodbye BB.....It is about time!!! Thanks for a lot of bad memories. Pat yourself on the back all you want because the bad far outweighs the good IMO.
VACowboy
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I have mixed feelings about Bowlsby. I'm sure it was hard to manage the conference when Texas and OU ruled everything. Sure, he could have done better but he was dealt a tough hand.
Go Pokes! Go Bearcats!
NJAggie
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Probably the best call. We need someone that really understands current media options as this next contract needs to not just pay it needs to set us up for future success.
Joe Khatib
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I always felt Bowlsby was always REACTING instead of leading and moving forward with some type of vision!
CaliforniaCowboy
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Finally.

That guy should have gotten the boot long ago.

hey, I heard Larry Scott from the Pac12 might be available
gary121853
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Dan Beebe got run out of town for being 'asleep at the wheel' in 2010 ... inevitable Bowlsby would suffer same fate ...hallelujah!
OSUgary
gary121853
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Dan Beebe got run out of town for being 'asleep at the wheel' in 2010 ... inevitable Bowlsby would suffer same fate ...hallelujah!
OSUgary
GumbyFromPokeyLand
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RA,

Your story reads like BB was essentially told he was going to be replaced as soon as a new commissioner can be hired. All other media accounts read as if Bowlsby decided on his own it was time to step down. Which is more correct?
CaliforniaCowboy
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GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

RA,

Your story reads like BB was essentially told he was going to be replaced as soon as a new commissioner can be hired. All other media accounts read as if Bowlsby decided on his own it was time to step down. Which is more correct?
this is from the ESPN article..... sounds like he was pushed out to me.... "collaboratively"... wink, wink, wink.

nice that they let him keep a little dignity ... probably has to do with letting him keep retirement (or buyout) if he "agreed collaboratively" to "take the exit ramp early:. Clearly he DID NOT make the decision "on his own"


Bowlsby, who turned 70 in January and has three years remaining on his contract, told ESPN he made the decision within the past two weeks but wanted to wait until after the Final Four to announce it. He said he knew he didn't want to extend the contract and spoke to conference leaders in an "honest conversation about the difficulty of the last two years and the challenges that were before us." He called it "very collaborative and very mutual in the outcome."

"They knew that sometime in the next year or two I was going to look for an off-ramp, and so the more we talked about it, the more we got to the point where, yeah, maybe it makes sense to transition now and bring somebody in that has a little longer runway," he said.
CaliforniaCowboy
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the Dallas Morning News story lists it this way


Schovanec (President of the B12 Board) said Bowlsby first approached the board about stepping down two months ago.

"As we visited, from both Bob's perspective and that of the conference, this was considered a natural time to transition to new leadership as we look towards the future of the Big 12," Schovanec said. "This announcement is very much about positioning the conference for the future. We're very bullish on the future. We're also very appreciative and grateful for what Bob has done the past 10 years. He leaves us in a good place."

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/tcu-horned-frogs/2022/04/05/big-12-announces-bob-bowlsby-will-be-step-down-as-commissioner-later-this-year/
Ostateman
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I've got some good news and some bad news.
The good news is Bob Bowlsby is gone.
The bad news is that BB's lackluster leadership destroyed a once great conference.

Honestly, whether or not BB was shoved out or he quit doesn't matter. The damage was done during his tenure.
He should have been given the boot a long time ago.
BB weakened the Big 12 by simply allowing other conferences to get bigger and better while BB sat on his thumbs.

Pesonally, I believe BB was aware that he had no confidence from Big 12 board members and it was a fait accompli that prompted BB to go out saving some face.

The Big 12 lost aTm, UT, NU, CU, UM and ou in a short period of time due to ineffectual, weak leadership.
Say what you will about the newest members, but they'll never replace the schools that we grew up playing and having some great, natural rivalries with over the decades.

All we can hope for now is to get a Type A guy that's bulldog tough and can speak the language of tv contracts until the NCAA collapses and a new, national organization takes over, replacinig essentiallly the traditional conference alighnment with regional mini-conference type configurations.
I know there are rules, but do we really want to follow them now?
GumbyFromPokeyLand
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I'll disagree with you on whether it matters if he was forced out, or is leaving without pressure.

If he's leaving without any pressure, that may be bad news because that's probably telling us the Presidents are at minimum content with the direction and status of the conference.

If he's being pressured I think it's clear the Presidents are not only not happy with recent events, but think new direction is NEEDED. Let's hope.

Clearly the new commissioner will have marching orders. Let's hope it's in conjunction with the latter and not the former.
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