Changing of the guard: Bowlsby exits amid college sports chaos
ARLINGTON — Bob Bowlsby exited stage left on Wednesday, his stepdown from the podium at Big 12 football media days symbolic of the pending end to his decade-long run as the conference's fourth commissioner.
Having turned 70 this year, Bowlsby will officially hand over the role of commissioner to Brett Yormark on Aug. 1. Yormark has worked high-level positions with NASCAR, the NBA's New Jersey and Brooklyn Nets and, most recently, Roc Nation. The commissioners were on stage together along with Baylor president Linda Livingstone, vice chair of the Big 12 board of directors, to kick off the two-day media days at AT&T Stadium.
Bowlsby is leaving at a time when shock waves in college athletics have become an annual event. UCLA and Southern California recently announced they were leaving the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten, about a year after Texas and Oklahoma rocked the Big 12 by accepting invitations to the Southeastern Conference.
The commissioners of both conferences on the losing end of those developments were caught off-guard when the bombshells dropped. Bowlsby famously said at last year's media days that "a lot of the motivation for realignment is no longer there" and "it's not one of the things that keeps me up at night" only to have UT and OU prove otherwise within days.
He poked fun at himself right off the bat Wednesday: "I said at the time I thought our board was as aligned as I had seen them during my 10 years with the Big 12. It was, I think, eight days later that OU and Texas announced they were going to the SEC. So you can take my assessment of calm waters for what they're worth."
USC's and UCLA's decisions to join the Big Ten in the near future set off endless speculation about what happens next. Will the Big 12 take schools from a weakened Pac-12? Might the Pac-12 entice schools from or arrange a merger with the Big 12, after declining to pursue the very same schools last year? And with the SEC and the Big Ten expected to command enormous numbers in their next media-rights agreements, what hope do the other conferences have to mitigate the gap?
Maybe the Big 12 can soften the cash shortfall if it can get Amazon or Apple TV or Netflix involved. Bowlsby was asked whether he expects to see the streaming giants enter the college-football space."Great question," he said. "Your guess is as good as mine. They haven't written very many checks so far, but the world is changing."
Yormark declared the Big 12 to be "open for business" and taking an aggressive approach, though he said nothing is imminent in regard to Big 12 expansion. Bowlsby sounded another cautious note.
"As Brett said, anybody we add has to be indeed additive," he said. "You can't add people that are just going to take more slices of the pie. So that's a very calculated, long thought-about outcome."
Bowlsby and his presidents moved quickly to stave off Big 12 extinction last summer, inviting Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston to join the conference. They're all coming aboard in July 2023, making it a 14-team Big 12 until UT and OU depart. The newcomers don't bring the tradition and cachet of the Longhorns and the Sooners, but they checked boxes Big 12 presidents made a priority: big-market programs who have been winning a lot of games in recent years.
"There are lots of things we take into consideration, and there are lots of things the new members bring," Bowlsby said. "Cincinnati is the second-oldest public university in the United States. Central Florida is the second-largest university in the country. Houston's in the best recruiting county in the United States for football talent. BYU is one of the few schools that truly has a worldwide reach."
By the time those schools arrive next summer, there's a good chance another seismic moment or moments will have taken place. That's the nature of college sports in the 2020s.
Asked if he feels TV networks are shaping college athletics more than school presidents and commissioners, Bowlsby painted a broader picture of cooks in the kitchen.
"Not just media partners, but there are a lot of people outside the enterprise having a lot of influence on what's going on: "Plaintiffs' lawyers. Student-athlete advocates. Those advocating for pay-for-play or unionization or revenue sharing. ... The courts are involved. The legislatures at the state level and on a national level are involved.
"There are a lot of people that have their fingers in it from collectives to boosters to other people. Athletic director jobs are getting more difficult all the time because of the outside influences."
Familiar face at WVU
Former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell is the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at West Virginia after three-year stints in the same roles at North Texas and Southern California.
Mountaineers coach Neal Brown said Harrell has brought "a different energy" about him and confidence without arrogance.
"It helps that he was a great player in this league," Brown said. "I think that gets the players' attention on your current roster, but also in recruiting. He's had great success not only at USC, but at North Texas as well. He's been able to have success with different types of players and different types of offenses, and so I'm excited with what he can bring."
Harrell will preside over a quarterback competition that includes J.T. Daniels, who spent two years each at USC and Georgia, as well as speedy runner Garrett Greene. Jarret Doege, the Lubbock-Cooper graduate who threw for 3,048 yards and 19 touchdowns last season, transferred to Western Kentucky.
WVU has four former Tech assistants on its stuff: Brown, Harrell, offensive line coach Matt Moore and running backs coach Chad Scott.
OU, UT grind Gundy's gears
Oklahoma and Texas, having accepted invitations to join the SEC, could still spend three more football seasons in the Big 12. Their alternative is to pay onerous exit fees and forfeit television revenue they signed over to the Big 12 through 2025.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said he objects to presidents and athletics directors from those schools continuing to sit in on Big 12 business meetings, citing the potential conflicts of interest.
"The new commissioner, if I was him, I wouldn't let OU and Texas in any meetings," Gundy said.
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have played continuously for more than 100 years, but Gundy offered little hope of the Bedlam rivalry continuing after the Sooners' departure.
"The future of Bedlam is it has a year or two left. That's the future of Bedlam, based on somebody else's decision," Gundy said, alluding to OU officials.
Klieman: Wells 'a dear, dear friend'
Texas Tech fired Matt Wells 30 games into his tenure and eight games into the 2021 season, two days after Kansas State rallied past the Red Raiders 25-24. Coincidentally, K-State coach Chris Klieman and Wells are tight.
"I was really sad for college football," Klieman said, "that Matt was released after the game where they're 5-2, 5-3 (record-wise). But I'm not there, so I don't know a lot of (the circumstances). Matt Wells is a dear, dear friend of mine. I wish him nothing but the best. ... Matt and I are still really good friends, and I'm happy that he's landing on his feet. Matt'll be a head coach here soon."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Changing of the guard: Bob Bowlsby exits amid college sports chaos
