Dan Beebe (born February 27, 1957) was the commissioner of theOhio Valley Conference from 1989 to 2003 andBig 12 Conference from 2007 to 2011.
Beebe grew up inWalla Walla, Washington and played two years football atWalla Walla Community College before getting a scholarship.[1] In 1979 he received a bachelor's degree fromCalifornia State Polytechnic University, Pomona where he was team captain on their football team.[2] In 1982 he graduated from theUniversity of California, Hastings College of the Law.[3]
His first job out of school was working in enforcement ofNCAA rules from 1982 to 1986. He was assistant director of athletics atWichita State University from 1986 to 1987. In 1987 he was named director of enforcement for the NCAA with his most notable case being the imposition of the "death penalty" againstSouthern Methodist University in theSouthern Methodist University football scandal.[3]
From 1989 to 2003, he was commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference.
In 2003 he joined the Big 12 as senior associate commissioner and chief operating officer. On September 5, 2007, he was promoted to commissioner.[3]
Beebe had a stormy experience at the Big 12 helm. TheUniversity of Nebraska moved to theBig Ten Conference and theUniversity of Colorado moved to thePac-12 Conference, both at the end of the 2010–2011 season. ThenTexas A&M University and theUniversity of Missouri announced in the fall of 2011 that they were moving to theSEC Conference at the end of the 2011–2012 season. The moves ended Missouri's and Nebraska's 100+ year relationship to the conference, and ended a100+ year rivalry between Texas A&M and the University of Texas.[3]
The departures of Missouri and Texas A&M had been prompted by a deal between the University of Texas andESPN to broadcast games on theLonghorn Network, which was valued at $300 million over 25 years. The departures of Nebraska and Colorado, which had destabilized the conference the previous year, were no small factor either. Texas also said it would broadcast high school highlights (which other schools felt would put them at a disadvantage when recruiting future players) and Texas initially indicated it would not share revenue from the deal with its fellow conference members. The NCAA ruled that televising potential recruits' games would not be allowed before revenue sharing could be done. Texas had been talking about such an arrangement since 2007.[4]
After some schools, in particular theUniversity of Oklahoma and its presidentDavid Boren, urged Beebe's ouster for not doing enough to address schools' concerns, he was ousted on September 23, 2011.[5]
Beebe said that he had proposed equal revenue distribution in the conference as early as 2008 but that the conference had not voted on it. Further he noted he had negotiated a 13-year $1 billion deal withFox Sports.[6]