Greg McElroy spotlights Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 commissioner hires as examples of changing landscape

The long-standing practice of hiring some sort of college athletics lifer to be a conference commissioner appears to be going by the wayside, given recent choices to head up a number of Power 5 conferences like the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac 12. And ESPN’s Greg McElroy thinks the hiring trend signifies how college sports, particularly football, is changing.

As the money continues to flow into college football and the sport grows as a national entity, McElroy sees new commissioners in the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac 12 as being uniquely equipped to deal with the challenge. Three of the relatively new league commissioners — Tony Petitti (Big Ten), Brett Yormark (Big 12) and George Kliavkoff (Pac 12) — are general outsiders to college athletics.

“It wasn’t your run of the mill, ‘Oh, well he worked in college for 30 years, let’s go hire the next guy up,'” McElroy said.

McElroy contended that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who worked in the Northwestern athletic administration before taking his current job, might be the last of college athletics lifers to be hired as a commissioner.

The parochial ways of doing things are quickly going by the wayside, McElroy said, and the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac 12 have seemingly hired their leaders accordingly.

“Look at the most recent hires by the Big Ten, bringing in Tony Petitti, a guy with tons of background with CBS and with Major League Baseball, with a sports-centric background, but not one that was exclusive to the college landscape. You look at what was hired out west in George Kliavkoff, with the Pac 12. He came from MGM, where yeah, loosely involved in the college sports scene, but hardly it being his pedigree. I mean, something that he clearly dealt with but not something that he majored in, by any stretch of the imagination,” McElroy said. “And then you look at what’s going on right now in the Big 12 and some of the moves that have been made by Brett Yormark to get aggressive. To go play games in Mexico. To go add multiple teams. To go continue to pursue other teams in the event which they became available. These are guys — he comes from a Roc Nation background. He comes from a dealmaking background. And he wants to be all about the brand.”

How, exactly, the new strain of commissioners shape the future of college sports remains to be seen, but McElroy thinks a trickle down effect in the thinking is inevitable. It’s only a matter of time until athletic directors or other administrative or leadership positions are being filled by outsiders with different skillsets.

“So I think it’s really interesting and, look, commissioners are one thing. I think that will trickle down to ADs. These are going to be guys with really unique backgrounds, with really unique skillsets,” McElroy said. “And it might not be the old run-of-the-mill, mom-and-pop shop that the athletic departments once were.”