Chuck Neinas, the former Big Eight commissioner whose media savvy and deal-making skills helped turn college football into the multibillion-dollar industry it is today, died Tuesday. He is 93 years old.
The NFL Foundation announced Neners’ death, with its president and CEO Steve Hatcher calling him “a visionary in every sense of the word.” The cause of death was not disclosed.
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From 1980-97, Nenas served as executive director of the College Football Association, a body created by several major conferences to wrest control of television rights from the NCAA.
Two major players, Georgia and Oklahoma, sued the NCAA over television, and the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 1984, effectively making the CFA an independent body from the rest of college sports. That gave Nenas a key seat at the negotiating table.
He brought back multibillion-dollar contracts in the 1980s and 1990s that laid the foundation for today’s industry, most notably a $7.8 billion College Football Playoff television deal.
After the CFA disbanded in 1997, with each conference taking its television rights into its own hands and the Bowl Championship Series (the precursor to today’s playoffs) about to begin, Nenas founded a consulting firm that helped schools develop policies and hire athletic directors and coaches.
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He served as CEO of Ascent Entertainment Group, which owned the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and their arenas before selling them to Liberty Media Group in 2000.
But his passion was college sports. He served as the Big 12’s interim commissioner in 2011-12, where he solidified the conference by adding TCU and West Virginia during multiple waves of realignments.
In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press, Nenas envisioned a future much like today as he considered lawsuits against the NCAA that would ultimately result in players being paid.
“Some changes need to be made,” Nenas said. “The auto industry is always trying to improve their model. College athletics should be doing the same. But the fundamentals are still sound.”
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Neners was born in Wisconsin, a longtime Colorado resident, and was living in Boulder at the time of his death.
After serving as a play-by-play reporter for Wisconsin football and basketball, Nenners found a job with the NCAA, serving as assistant executive director from 1961-71. In 1971, he became commissioner of the Big Eight Conference until his transition to the CFA.
During his Elite Eight tenure, Nenas served as chairman of the committee that recommended the NCAA withdraw from the U.S. Olympic Committee. This led to a major reorganization and the passage of the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act that governs the U.S. Olympic Games today.
