IRVING, Texas – Dan Beebe on Wednesday was named the new Commissioner of the Big 12 Conference.

Beebe has been the Senior Associate Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the Big 12 since February 2003, and before that was the Commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference for 14 years.

Beebe agreed to a five-year contract, and immediately begins duties as the Big 12’s third commissioner. Kevin Weiberg stepped down as Big 12 Commissioner in July.

“Dan Beebe brings to the Big 12 the experience and vision to advance the Big 12 into the next stage of its development as one of the preeminent collegiate athletics conferences in the United States,” said Big 12 board chairman and University of Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman. “We expect his extensive background and experience in collegiate sports management will help us advantageously position the Big 12 Conference with its media, bowl, sponsor, and other external partners. We look forward to his leadership within the Conference as well as in the dialog on important issues facing intercollegiate athletics generally.”

Added Beebe: “I am excited and honored to lead the Big 12 Conference, and I am grateful to the Presidents and Chancellors of the members of the Big 12 for giving me this opportunity to address the exciting issues facing collegiate athletics in the near future, such as enhancing sportsmanship, developing new sources of revenues, ensuring compliance with the Conference and NCAA regulation scheme, and cementing the relationships among the outstanding Universities that are members in the Big 12 Conference.

“The solid basis that has been established over the first decade of the Conference’s existence provides us with the momentum to confirm the Big 12’s position as one of the leading collegiate athletic conferences in the nation. I will bring my experience as a conference leader and my contacts and broad experience in the sports community to bear in assisting our members in taking the Big 12 to the next level of success from a competitive and financial standpoint, as well as influencing the national agenda for collegiate athletics.”

Beebe has a history with Kansas University athletics director Lew Perkins, as Perkins hired Beebe to be an assistant athletics director while at Wichita State in 1986.

“We are very excited to have Dan Beebe as the next Big 12 Conference commissioner,” Perkins said. “I have personally known Dan for some 20-plus years. He brings a great deal of integrity and is somebody with an extremely powerful vision. He is going to help take us to the next stage of college athletics.

“Dan has an unbelievably extensive background. He understands the conference with his four-and-a-half years of experience in the Big 12 office. He has a great working relationship with the NCAA through his work in its enforcement department. He’s been totally involved in bowl negotiations and sponsorships. Kevin Weiberg gave him a great deal of leeway in his role as associate commissioner. I know he has learned a lot at the Big 12, but he was also the commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference, so he has the experience of being a commissioner and I think he is a solid choice.”

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