Who Could Be the Next Big 12 Commissioner?

Might bring OU back? Scratch Castiglione!

It amazed me to no end when Mike Holder tried to warn Bowlsby back in April or May of last year that he smelled a rat regarding Texas and OU when it came to a media rights issue and Bowlsby refused to take him seriously then got the rug pulled out from underneath him by Sankey when it was announced that OU and Texas were leaving for the SEC in late July!!!!!!

Joe Khatib said:

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It amazed me to no end when Mike Holder tried to warn Bowlsby back in April or May of last year that he smelled a rat regarding Texas and OU when it came to a media rights issue and Bowlsby refused to take him seriously then got the rug pulled out from underneath him by Sankey when it was announced that OU and Texas were leaving for the SEC in late July!!!!!!

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Honestly he should have smelled the same rat Mike Holder did.

I'll give him credit for his reaction, but yes he should have been in front of it. I'm not sure what he could do since UT was dead set on not letting him make any changes as they had everything their way. I think he messed up when he didn't push the expansion OU wanted in 2016.

UT seems convinced that the money and being in the SEC will fix their lack of "talent". Yes all the talk out of UT is that they didn't have enough talent to compete, and blame it all on their lack of money, and not being in the SEC. So it's really hard to fix delusional, so I don't think there was any hope there. However, had he got in front of it soon enough he might have stopped OU from going. UT probably would have taken Tech along with them, but that's not what happened. But the fact he just said OK when OU & UT shot down early negotiations on the next TV contract, and felt there weren't any problems was a huge miss.

As for the next one we have to get someone that knows college football as we have no time for them to learn on the job. And we need them to know TV/media packaging same deal. No time to get up to speed.

Oh, nice graphic guys!!!

naw.... sorry Robert, your whole article is back of the pack thinking and not only "in the box" thinking, but shrink wrapped in.

Take this first paragraph where you present 'desired qualities";

"The next commissioner of the conference has to be a lot of things, but two primarily. They need to be well connected and an ears to the ground reader of tea leaves. That is to say they need to know what is happening before it happens or at least have a good idea of what the possibilities are and have a plan of attack for whatever the changing landscape of college conferences and organizations ends up being."

That my friend, I refer to as 'reactionary". We don't need reactionary, we need a leader, a forward thinker.

IMO, none of the college football landscapes will ever have the fervor and following of the SEC, so no need to try to mimic them or follow them. They may be the model for the old-school TV media, but not necessarily something that the Big 12 should try to emulate (aside from aiming for the most money possible for the league)

We should NOT go into TV negotiations now with an attitude of "what will you give us' for this line-up, but rather, what else can do we do make our line-up worth more.

Who says we (collaborative of which ever conferences) cannot decide or impact the way the the college football winds blow?

We definitely DO NOT need a marketing person from the NFL, nor a "SEC lifer" (that sounds like hiring Boren to run OSU).

This whole process should be interesting, but I hope there is more forward thinking about the process and the hire, than what I'm reading from your article and the other pundits.

Need to hire from outside the conference to have a fresh perspective moving forward. Since College Sports is moving into a new age with all the recent changes and is still evolving it will require a highly talented commissioner. I like the concept of bringing in someone with NFL background.

Bowlsby can't be blamed for the OU/UT departure as it caught everyone by surprise when A&M leaked the information. He gets my praise for maintaining current teams and getting four other teams.

I really believe a candidate is already hired but not public yet. Bowlsby was only making 2.5 to 3 million yearly. I have heard other Conferences Commissioners are paid closer to 6-9 million. Big 12 will need to step up in pay range to attract a talented commissioner.

Not my choice… but seems Oliver Luck is the front runner. I would rather have out of conference candidate from Big 10 or SEC or NFL.

Slow, I don't blame him for what UT kept him for doing for most of his tenure I blame UT.

But, Holder and Shrum both warned him that OU and UT were up to something when they blocked early TV contract negotiations. He said there wasn't any problem as he knew the people involved.

In fact OU & UT tried to blame ESPN not wanting to negotiate for the exit when it was them that backed out.

He got information and failed to even check it out, just went with his instinct. That I can blame him for. Whether that makes them stay or not I don't know, but it didn't help.

one always needs good information to make the best decisions, but you can hire consultants and buy market intelligence...

you cannot purchase consensus building and leadership after a wrong person is in place.

an "insider" is not needed, nor is there an overwhelming need for someone with background in higher education, leadership is the primary quality that is needed. Someone that is not afraid to go where others would not go because of their biased influences.