Citing a need to explore new challenges, Big 12 Conference commissioner Kevin Weiberg announced his resignation Thursday after nearly nine years leading the league.
Weiberg will become vice president of university planning and development at the fledgling Big Ten Network, which is scheduled to launch in August.
“The Big 12 commissioner’s position is a great job, one of the best in college sports, but for me, it was simply not a two-decade job,” Weiberg said. “This is an opportunity for me to do something different.”
It is also an opportunity for Weiberg to return to the Big Ten, where he rose to deputy commissioner before taking over as Big 12 commissioner in December 1998.
Weiberg inherited a conference in just its second year and built it into one of the nation’s most powerful.
“There was a lot of suspicion; the schools hadn’t coalesced into a real collaboration yet,” Nebraska chancellor and Big 12 board of directors chairman Harvey Perlman said. “He brought financial stability to the conference and generated levels of trust between its members.”
Under Weiberg, the Big 12 has nearly doubled its yearly revenue distribution to member schools, from $54 million in its first year of existence to $106 million during the 2006-07 fiscal year.
And the conference’s major short-term business goals have been reached, Weiberg said. Championship sites are secured for the next four years, bowl agreements are in place through the 2009 season and the Big 12 recently signed a multiyear television contract with ABC/ESPN through the 2015-16 academic year.
The league also announced Thursday a new multiyear deal with XM satellite radio. XM will air the league football championship and the entire Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, plus select regular-season games in each of the three sports.
“Kevin will certainly be missed,” Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn said Thursday while in San Diego to speak to a CU alumni group. “There was never a time of day or time of need for us when Kevin wasn’t available.”
The Big Ten Network is counting on Weiberg’s reputation in collegiate athletics to translate to the world of cable television.
“He is a brilliant administrator with a proven track record in college athletics,” said Elizabeth Conlisk, the Big Ten Network’s vice president of communications. “He’s had experience with TV contracts, and he understands ratings.”
Bohn expects the Big 12 to solicit the services of Chuck Neinas, a Boulder-based headhunter for college coaches and administrators. Neinas was commissioner of the Big Eight Conference from 1971-80.
“I don’t think there’s any question that we will find a great replacement for Kevin,” Bohn said.
The Big 12 board of directors will meet in the next couple of weeks to begin finding Weiberg’s replacement, Perlman said.
Staff writer Tom Kensler and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Joel A. Erickson can be reached at 303-954-1033 or jerickson@denverpost.com.
