Chuck Neinas, the longtime college athletics administrator who helped steady the Big 12 during one of its most uncertain chapters, passed away Tuesday at the age of 93.

Neinas served as the Big 12’s interim commissioner from 2011 to 2012, a short tenure that carried outsized importance for the league’s direction. During that period, he oversaw the conference’s expansion steps that brought TCU and West Virginia into the Big 12, moves that helped shape the modern footprint of the league.

In recognition of his service, the Big 12 has named its Football Coach of the Year award in his honor since the 2012 season.

Neinas’ influence on college sports extended well beyond the Big 12. A 1957 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he served as commissioner of the Big Eight Conference from 1971 to 1980, one of the Big 12’s predecessor leagues and a central part of the conference lineage that defined the sport in the Midwest and Plains for decades.

He later became executive director of the College Football Association from 1980 to 1997, and also held leadership roles with the NCAA earlier in his career.

His resume also bridged the collegiate and professional worlds. Neinas served as chairman of the board and acting chief executive officer of Ascent Entertainment Group, which previously owned the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets.

Through Neinas Sports Services, he advised and guided institutions through major hiring processes for football coaches, basketball coaches, and athletics directors – work that often happens quietly, but can define an athletic department for years.

Over a career spanning decades, Neinas earned numerous honors that reflected how widely he was respected across the sport. Among them: induction into the Bowl Season Hall of Fame in 2024, the National Football Foundation’s Outstanding Contribution to College Football Award (1999), NACDA’s James J. Corbett Memorial Award (1999), and the AFCA’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award (1996).

For Big 12 fans, his name is tied to a specific moment in conference history, when stability, steady leadership, and credibility mattered as much as any on-field result. Neinas did not chase the spotlight; he handled the difficult, often thankless job of helping guide a major conference through transition, leaving behind a legacy rooted in service and stewardship.

He is remembered not only for the titles he held but for the lasting impact those years of leadership had on the institutions and people across college athletics.