Chuck Neinas, the previous convention commissioner who helped form the trendy panorama of school soccer, has died, the Nationwide Soccer Basis introduced Tuesday. He was 93.
Neinas held management roles with the USA Olympic Committee and the NCAA, and was commissioner of the Huge 8 from 1971 to 1980 earlier than changing into the manager director of the School Soccer Affiliation.
The CFA was an alliance of soccer colleges from conferences such because the ACC, Huge 8 and SEC, in addition to main independents. The group had been launched a number of years earlier over members’ frustrations with the NCAA, which managed all faculty soccer tv rights.
In his position, Neinas wound up having a profound impression on the game’s TV preparations and, in consequence, convention realignment. In 1981, the CFA brokered its personal rival cope with NBC. When the NCAA threatened sanctions towards taking part colleges, two CFA colleges, Oklahoma and Georgia, took the NCAA to court docket, alleging antitrust violations. The case finally reached the U.S. Supreme Courtroom, which sided with the faculties.
“School athletics has misplaced one of many true giants of our career, and I’ve misplaced an expensive good friend and mentor,” NFF President and CEO Steve Hatchell, who was the primary commissioner of the Huge 12 in 1995. “Chuck Neinas was a visionary in each sense of the phrase. From his time on the NCAA to his management of the Huge 8 and the CFA, he didn’t simply handle change, he drove it.”
The landmark Supreme Courtroom resolution led to the current surroundings wherein conferences negotiate their very own tv contracts, which led to a number of many years of colleges altering leagues in the hunt for the very best deal.
“The chaotic state of school athletics right this moment was not in our imaginative and prescient,” Neinas informed The Athletic in 2024. “It’s past any management.”
When the CFA disbanded in 1997, Neinas based Neinas Sports activities Companies, one of many first corporations to focus on serving to colleges rent coaches and athletic administrators. His placements included each AD Joe Castiglione and coach Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, Mack Brown at Texas, Mark Richt at Georgia and Mark Dantonio at Michigan State.
Sending ideas & prayers to the household & pals of former Interim Huge 12 Commissioner Chuck Neinas.
Might he relaxation in peace. pic.twitter.com/7t6IlbWRgF
— Huge 12 Convention (@Big12Conference) December 16, 2025
A wave of convention realignment within the early 2010s led to Neinas heading up the Huge 12 from 2011 to 2012. He was named interim commissioner, changing Dan Beebe after Nebraska, Texas A&M, Colorado and Missouri left the convention.
Neinas helped stabilize the convention with the additions of TCU and West Virginia.
“Chuck has been a frontrunner and visionary for a very long time in faculty athletics,” stated Bob Bowlsby, who succeeded Neinas as Huge 12 commissioner. “On a extra private degree, he by no means acquired cheated. He lived all 93 years and made probably the most out of all of them. He was a real character, scary sensible and only a actually enjoyable man to be round.”
Throughout his time main the Huge 12, Neinas was a part of the group of convention commissioners who finally constructed and signed off on the primary School Soccer Playoff. The primary four-team iteration of the CFP was launched in 2014 to switch the Bowl Championship Collection.
Neinas started his administrative profession on the NCAA in 1961, overseeing the Ultimate 4 and the School World Collection.
Deeply Saddened. True Legend. Sport Changer!
“Chuck Neinas was a visionary in each sense of the phrase. From his time on the NCAA to his management of the Huge Eight and the CFA, he did not simply handle change, he drove it,” — Steve Hatchell.https://t.co/2hjWuAKT6n pic.twitter.com/0PPUdKQcLQ
— Nationwide Soccer Basis (@NFFNetwork) December 16, 2025
Neinas, who served within the Navy, graduated from the College of Wisconsin in 1957. His first job in faculty athletics was in broadcasting, doing radio play-by-play for Wisconsin soccer and basketball video games.
“I used to be lucky to get to know Chuck Neinas in lots of roles by the 12 months,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey stated. “He was extremely shiny and fascinating, with a outstanding readability in his communication. From the NCAA to the Huge Eight Convention to the School Soccer Affiliation and thru his work with the Huge 12, Chuck constructed belief with individuals and created a legacy that continues to form how we expertise faculty sports activities.”
— The Athletic’s Seth Emerson contributed to this story.
