The Big 12 dumped its embattled commissioner Thursday and said nine schools had pledged to give their TV rights to the conference for the next six years, a step intended to preserve a fractured league that has lost two members in the past year and is expected to lose another by next summer. “The bottom line is we achieved substantial reforms,” Oklahoma President David Boren said after school presidents met by telephone for more than an hour. “We feel extremely good.” No contracts had been signed yet in part because some schools must get the approval of their governing boards, league spokesman Bob Burda said. Commissioner Dan Beebe is gone after five up-and-down years that included securing a 13-year, $1.2 billion contract with Fox Sports but sharp criticism for failing to keep Nebraska (Big Ten) and Colorado (Pac-12) from leaving over the summer. Texas A&M plans to leave by July for the Southeastern Conference. “I put all my effort into doing what was best for the Big 12. I wish the Big 12 Conference a long and prosperous future,” Beebe said in a statement. Former Big Eight Commissioner Chuck Neinas will serve as interim commissioner. Boren said Neinas will not be a candidate to take the job permanently. Revenue sharing and a change of leadership were considered by some schools, notably Oklahoma, as the top issues to address to save the league in the latest round of conference realignment. The Big 12 splits revenue from its Fox Sports contract evenly, but only half of the money from its top-tier deal with ABC goes into equal shares. The rest is weighted toward the programs that play on the network more frequently.
