Bob Bowlsby has always been a wrestler at heart, a teaser who’d smack your face on the mat for a point. He loved the sport, rose to captaincy for his team at Minnesota State-Morehead, and won the 1975 conference title at 167 pounds as a senior.
But wrestlers wear them down too.
Amid the announcement that Bowlsby, 70, would step down after a decade as Big 12 commissioner, that was the conclusion of some of his closest aides. Recent events had simply taken their toll.
“He’ll be like a lot of us,” said a colleague. “He’s frustrated.”
Everyone at the administrative level is grappling with the uncertain future of collegiate athletics – a world that now includes names, images and likenesses; the transfer portal and player empowerment, while the NCAA’s authority is slowly but surely declining. This isn’t the version that college athletics Bowlsby — or any of his peers — signed up for the lead.
However, Bowlsby had to deal with the added strain of having the rug pulled out from under him and his conference when perennial powerhouses Oklahoma and Texas abruptly announced they would be moving to the SEC in July 2021.
The news that the Sooners and Longhorns have left the league came just a week after telling the media that his conference was never reunited. Bowlsby will retire and will still be fighting the SEC and ESPN, who have conspired to destroy the Big 12, and he claims he has the receipts but won’t reveal them.
The pressure didn’t end there as the work he put into expanding the college football playoffs turned out to be a waste of time as well. Immigration from Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC created divisions and distrust in leadership that persist to this day. Expansion could come in four years at the earliest, but without Bowlsby topping the Big 12.
It was a bit excruciating to watch as it all unfolded.
However, he quickly moved to add Houston, Cincinnati, BYU and UCF to maintain the league’s strength despite losing the Oklahoma and Texas brands.
“Bob saved this conference. In doing so, he had to take a really strong position against ESPN,” said a source inside the Big 12.
Then there was COVID-19, which wreaked havoc on everyone’s psyche. It was time for a steward deeply devoted to his family and grandchildren to make a career.
“At this point in his personal life, not all roses were rosy,” said Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec, current chairman of the Big 12 presidents. “He talked about wanting to spend more time with his wife and his kids and grandkids.
“I sat with him in San Diego with two of his grandchildren at the site of the first round of the NCAA tournament. He just beamed.”
Bowlsby’s departure results in a change of power as SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey now becomes the Senior Lead Administrator at the Power Five level. When Bowlsby’s successor takes over as the Big 12, none of the original commissioners who shaped modern collegiate athletics will remain in power.
Bowlsby could be the most significant figure yet to step down due to the troubled nature of collegiate athletics. The landscape is changing so rapidly and with such impact that administrators everywhere are questioning their future.
The current state of the NCAA is doing little to improve, with the organization in such disarray and having lost so much of its standing that it turns out its president needed cue cards to announce the winner of Monday night’s NCAA tournament championship game determine.
Bowlsby likes to use terms like “collegiality” and “cooperation” and “shared beliefs”. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of that in collegiate athletics these days. The man who gave Jim Harbaugh his first Power Five job at Stanford, guided the Big 12 through a few rounds of realignment, and survived the Baylor sexual assault scandal also served on every NCAA committee you can name.
Apparently he’s had enough.
Bowlsby isn’t ready to advise on retirement. That’s it.
He recently told a colleague that they can call him as long as it doesn’t become routine. The old wrestler hangs up the undershirt.
However, Bowlsby will remain pending the appointment of a new commissioner, giving the successor an opportunity to negotiate a new television contract. The current contract expires on June 30, 2025 — interestingly, the same day Bowlsby’s existing contract would have expired.
A new commissioner should be announced within three months, Schovanec told CBS Sports.
A short list of candidates emerged. Among the names: former West Virginia Athletic Director Oliver Luck, Pac-12 Deputy Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich, Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt, Washington State President Kirk Schulz and Baylor President Linda Livingstone.
It’s probably a good idea for the new commissioner to negotiate this TV deal. This person will deal with TV executives and navigate a new NCAA. That is, of course, if there is to be an NCAA at all in the future.
In the meantime, Bowlsby will be a place where I would often find him on Sunday phone calls — arguing with grandchildren, hosting holiday get-togethers, and unwinding from everything.
Except now that the family and relaxation time is permanent.