Jacie
1/26/2012, 09:41 PM
. . . and his name is Chuck Neinas.
January 25, 2012
Neinas gives Big 12 update
Mike Graham
RedRaiderSports.com
RedRaiderSports.com's Chris Level and Aaron Dickens caught up with interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas on their Lubbock radio show "Tech Talk" Wednesday.
Neinas, the Big Eight Conference Commissioner from 1971 to 1980, has done some big things during his four months on the job.
Most notably Neinas was instrumental in adding TCU and West Virginia into the Big 12. It looks like the Big 12 will have a 10-team league for a second year in a row as West Virginia has assured Neinas the Mountaineers will play in the Big 12 this upcoming academic year.
"I'm very confident," Neinas told Level and Dickens. "I've received multiple assurances by their president and by their director of athletics. I know they've told the Big East Conference they're going to play in the Big 12 starting in September, 2012, and I have no reason to not accept their position. So we're counting on that."
With the West Virginia issues nearly wrapped up, the Big 12 is on pace to release the 2012 conference football schedule by Feb. 1. Releasing the schedule by that deadline is imperative for the Big 12 to meet its TV agreements.
In the immediate future, Neinas discussed the Big 12 Expansion Committee's meeting today. The committee was created this past summer to evaluate the conference's future viability and whether the league should expand back out to 12 teams or remain at 10 teams.
"When the board of directors finalized our arrangement with West Virginia University, they instructed the expansion committee to monitor the changing landscape of college athletics," Neinas said. "We have a board of directors meeting next week so the expansion committee is expected to report to the board. So what the expansion committee is doing is basically fulfilling its role for the board of directors.
"Right now we're at (10) teams. I don't anticipate there's going to be a movement off 10. It could happen down the road, but we definitely will be at 10 for 2012-2013 and there is strong feeling within the membership that 10 provides the opportunity for round-robin in football and you get to play everyone in basketball twice -- home and away. That seems to be appealing for our members. To go beyond that would take a lot of research and hard thinking."
Neinas accepted the Big 12 commissionership right after former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe was fired on the heels of the league losing Texas A&M and Missouri to the Southeastern Conference.
But Neinas made it clear he was only going to be a temporary solution. His future as the Big 12 commissioner will be discussed at the Feb. 2 board of directors meeting. He doesn't really have an answer for how much longer he'll stay on board with the league, but offered the characteristics he's looking for in his replacement.
January 25, 2012
Neinas gives Big 12 update
Mike Graham
RedRaiderSports.com
RedRaiderSports.com's Chris Level and Aaron Dickens caught up with interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas on their Lubbock radio show "Tech Talk" Wednesday.
Neinas, the Big Eight Conference Commissioner from 1971 to 1980, has done some big things during his four months on the job.
Most notably Neinas was instrumental in adding TCU and West Virginia into the Big 12. It looks like the Big 12 will have a 10-team league for a second year in a row as West Virginia has assured Neinas the Mountaineers will play in the Big 12 this upcoming academic year.
"I'm very confident," Neinas told Level and Dickens. "I've received multiple assurances by their president and by their director of athletics. I know they've told the Big East Conference they're going to play in the Big 12 starting in September, 2012, and I have no reason to not accept their position. So we're counting on that."
With the West Virginia issues nearly wrapped up, the Big 12 is on pace to release the 2012 conference football schedule by Feb. 1. Releasing the schedule by that deadline is imperative for the Big 12 to meet its TV agreements.
In the immediate future, Neinas discussed the Big 12 Expansion Committee's meeting today. The committee was created this past summer to evaluate the conference's future viability and whether the league should expand back out to 12 teams or remain at 10 teams.
"When the board of directors finalized our arrangement with West Virginia University, they instructed the expansion committee to monitor the changing landscape of college athletics," Neinas said. "We have a board of directors meeting next week so the expansion committee is expected to report to the board. So what the expansion committee is doing is basically fulfilling its role for the board of directors.
"Right now we're at (10) teams. I don't anticipate there's going to be a movement off 10. It could happen down the road, but we definitely will be at 10 for 2012-2013 and there is strong feeling within the membership that 10 provides the opportunity for round-robin in football and you get to play everyone in basketball twice -- home and away. That seems to be appealing for our members. To go beyond that would take a lot of research and hard thinking."
Neinas accepted the Big 12 commissionership right after former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe was fired on the heels of the league losing Texas A&M and Missouri to the Southeastern Conference.
But Neinas made it clear he was only going to be a temporary solution. His future as the Big 12 commissioner will be discussed at the Feb. 2 board of directors meeting. He doesn't really have an answer for how much longer he'll stay on board with the league, but offered the characteristics he's looking for in his replacement.