In 2003 he joined the Big 12 as senior associate commissioner and chief operating officer. On September 5, 2007, he was promoted to commissioner.[3]
Beebe had a stormy experience at the Big 12 helm. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln moved to the Big Ten Conference and the University of Colorado moved to the Pac-12 Conference, both at the end of the 2010–2011 season. Then Texas A&M University and the University of Missouri announced in the fall of 2011 that they were moving to the SEC Conference at the end of the 2011–2012 season. The moves ended Missouri's and Nebraska's 100+ year relationship to the conference, and ended a 100+ year rivalry between Texas A&M and the University of Texas.[3]
The departures of Missouri and Texas A&M had been prompted by a deal between the University of Texas and ESPN to broadcast games on the Longhorn Network, which was valued at $300 million over 25 years. The departures of Nebraska and Colorado, which had destabilized the conference the previous year, were no small factor either. Texas also said it would broadcast high school highlights (which other schools felt would put them at a disadvantage when recruiting future players) and Texas initially indicated it would not share revenue from the deal with its fellow conference members. The NCAA ruled that televising potential recruits' games would not be allowed before revenue sharing could be done. Texas had been talking about such an arrangement since 2007.[4]
After some schools, in particular the University of Oklahoma and its president David Boren, urged Beebe's ouster for not doing enough to address schools' concerns, he was ousted on September 23, 2011.[5]
Beebe said that he had proposed equal revenue distribution in the conference as early as 2008 but that the conference had not voted on it. Further he noted he had negotiated a 13-year $1 billion deal with Fox Sports.[6]