There is no doubt high-level college sports leadership positions have become more temporary. Coaching has been a revolving door for decades, and lately it seems like the athletic director role has also featured plenty of chopping and changing, with the most important part of the jobs at major programs boiling down to whether an AD can hire a successful football coach.
But what happens to college sports if that also starts to be the case for the conference commissioner job?
Conference offices have the reputation of being the administrative equivalent of a country club environment somewhat removed from the school-level politics and turnover. On the extreme end, that contributes to significant disconnect between a league office and its schools. You go there, you work for twenty-ish years and you call it a career. But perhaps that’s no longer the case. Of the 10 FBS conferences, six have had a commissioner change since 2019 with multiple longtime leaders leaving their roles for retirement, including Bob Bowlsby, Craig Thompson, Jim Delany, Karl Benson and John Swofford.
