Dan Beebe Resigns As Big 12 Commissioner, Replaced By Chuck Neinas

And when you seek replacements for acting commissioner Chuck Neinas, you take recommendations from those who know the Big 12 landscape. To do that, you get Chuck Neinas’ advice. And when you get Chuck Neinas’ advice, you hire Chuck Neinas.

↵Congratulations, commissioner for life Chuck Neinas!

Just one day after he was announced as Big 12 interim commissioner, Chuck Neinas gave a broad-reaching interview, outlining his plans for the conference and his thoughts on where it currently stands. Expansion is on the table, according to Neinas, and he will be looking for a 10th team, which the Big 12 members feel is the right number. Neinas also showed his optimistic side, telling reporters he planned to speak to Texas A&M in an effort to get the Aggies to stay.

We’re not sure if Neinas is a betting man, but his look at the odds of keeping A&M seem a bit long, to say the least.

At a Thursday night press conference, University of Oklahoma president David Boren ran through a series of reforms meant to keep the Big 12 conference intact. The most important: the conference has a six-year media rights agreement. Under such a deal, if a school leaves, the conference will retain that school’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 media rights until the end of the six-year period.

Boren also announced the Big 12 is looking to expand, “reactivating” its expansion committee. He pointed out Oklahoma gets to remain in a “geographically contiguous” conference that will be better for students and the families of athletes. His bit on a healthy heartland conference being good for America ... that might sound corny and like the kind of thing school presidents say when it concerns the interests of their own schools, but I totally agree with him.

If there was one great thing about the ongoing conference realignment saga, it was @DanBeebe, the Twitter parody account that seemed so much like the real thing, we began to wonder if the Big 12 commissioner was actually behind it. And on Thursday, the moment we’ve all been waiting for arrived: The real Dan Beebe tendered his forced resignation, and @DanBeebe went off. It was the most spectacular of finales.

Below, you’ll find all of Fake Dan Beebe’s swan song tweets. Be forewarned, the language and content is a bit strong. But oh boy is it amazing.

Dan Beebe has resigned as Big 12 commissioner, according to a report on Thursday evening. Beebe had come under fire as the Big 12 struggled to survive this wave of conference expansion, and his resignation was reportedly a condition of Oklahoma’s continued support of the conference.

The news comes from Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News

As Wednesday night reports broke that Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe would soon step down, one name emerged above all the rest as his potential interim replacement. Chuck Neinas is that name. Neinas has now confirmed he’s been approached about the job, according to the KC Star’s Mike DeArmond, and that he’s applied, according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd.

Neinas does not have an untarnished reputation, having worked as a coaching hire consultant amid a couple of questionable scenarios. But he has many reputations, as he’s had lots and lots of jobs.

Following reports on Wednesday that Dan Beebe could be departing as Big 12 Commissioner in the near future, the Kansas City Star is reporting that Beebe is working on his exit package and that his departure from the job could be announced on Thursday. Beebe has become unpopular with some of the presidents of Big 12 schools during the current conference realignment mess, likely leading to his making way for some new blood.

When Colorado and Nebraska departed the Big 12 last year but no one else followed, Beebe was widely praised for saving the conference. Between the creation of the Longhorn Network, Texas A&M’s departure to the SEC and rumors of a Pac-12 annexation of Big 12 teams - which is no longer happening - public opinion of Beebe seems to have shifted significantly.

For more, visit BYU blog Vanquish The Foe and TCU blog Frogs O’ War.

And according to Tramel’s source, the replacement of current commissioner Dan Beebe with “an interim commissioner” would be one of the “major, major reforms” required to keep the Sooners from leaving. Whoa.

Beebe has been perhaps the BCS’ most unpopular conference commissioner, at least until CBS Sports scooped Big East commissioner John Marinatto on the exit of two Big East teams. Oklahoma has reason to give the Big 12 a shot at keeping established rivalries intact, but that’s quite a line in the sand they’re drawing if this report is accurate.