AP’s Stephen Hawkins reported on the $426 million revenue. Before we get into the meat of the article, Hawkins is the West Texas correspondent for the Associated Press. He’s been there as long as I can remember and it’s important to sometimes know where these people are.

Hawkins reported that the Big 12 will distribute $426 million to 10 schools, 25% more than last year and 10% higher than before the pandemic, with the quotes below from Lawrence Schovanec who wears multiple hats, Texas Tech President and Chairman of the Big 12 Board of Directors, is quoted below.

Revenues are expected to increase again over the next two years, the final years of the league’s media rights deal with ESPN and Fox. That is also a time when the league will add new members BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, likely all next summer, with powerhouse programs Oklahoma and Texas departing for the Southeastern Conference no later than July 1, 2025 — and possibly sooner.

While the Big 12 will lose its only two football national champions, the four additions will have the league spread across eight states and three time zones.

“The financial aspects of this are very important to the health and vitality of our athletic programs. We know that. And that’s why what we do beyond ’24-25 is going to be so important,” Schovanec said. “We recognize that the manner in which this inventory will be distributed is going to change. … We’re all analyzing how we’re going to move forward. And I think a lot of that will depend on the relationships we develop with our new media partners. That will be one of the priorities of the new commissioner once that person is in place.”

The other big part of the news from the article is that the Big 12 expects to announce a new commissioner at the Big 12 Media Days on July 13-14.

“In preparing for the search, what the firm realized was that there was a great alignment among our conference in terms of the vision and the strengths that we need,” he said. “So that pool reflects a diversity of candidates in their professional experience, some from the more traditional athletic administrative roles and then others.”

While not divulging who or how many, Schovanec said a lot of people were interested in the position. He did say the incoming conference members would “have a voice” in the final interview process after finalists are determined.

Having Schovanec lead the Big 12 is interesting for sure, or at least be the spokesperson and he’s pretty down the middle, which is what you want. I’ve come to the conclusion that the university presidents really lead the Big 12 and a commissioner is doing what the Big 12 presidents want, although I think that discipline is largely commissioner based (which I don’t care a lot about discipline).

CBS Sports Dennis Dodd tweeted that the candidates are not internal.

Hearing no internal candidates for Big 12 commissioner job. That could change of course. Presidents wrangling over external candidates and how far away from traditional college candidate they may want to look.

— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) June 7, 2022