Bob Bowlsby announces plans to step away from the Big 12 Conference
By Keith Farner
Published:
Bob Bowlsby, who has been busy the last year with the departures of Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 Conference, announced on Tuesday plans to step away as commissioner.
Bowlsby will remain commissioner of the Big 12 until the appointment of a new commissioner and will then, at the request of the conference, transition to a new interim role, subject to the mutual agreement of Bowlsby and the new commissioner, the Big 12 announced.
“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 said in a release.
Bowlsby’s replacement will be charged with handling the timing of the OU and Texas departure to the SEC, and once that person is identified, it will be the first question for the new commissioner.
Bowlsby was appointed Commissioner in 2012, and along with the OU and Texas departures, he was involved with the Big 12’s addition of 4 future members, in BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston agreeing to join the Conference no later than the 2024-25 academic year.
Over his tenure, the Big 12 has won 25 NCAA team national championships, including last night’s men’s basketball title game victory by the University of Kansas. In 2020-21 the Big 12 captured 5 NCAA team national championships, including a Baylor University men’s basketball title. Also, for four consecutive years, the Big 12 has placed men’s basketball teams in the Final Four. In football, the Big 12 has placed teams in the College Football Playoff New Year’s Bowls throughout its seven-year history. The Big 12 is the home of two of the last five Heisman Trophy winners and was the only Conference to place a team in the Final Four and CFP semi-finals in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
