Stanford Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby is going to become the new Big 12 Commissioner, CBS Sports reported Thursday.

Bowlsby, who served as the athletic director at Northern Iowa from 1984 to 1991 and at Iowa from 1991 to 2006, will be replacing interim commissioner Chuck Neinas, who took over for Dan Beebe last fall.

An official announcement by the conference, however, has not been made.

ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard is in Phoenix and is unavailable for comment, but tweeted Thursday that this is the “best I have felt about the Big 12 in my seven years [as the ISU athletic director].”

As the athletic director at Stanford, Bowlsby was instrumental in winning the school its 17th consecutive Learfield Sports’ Directors Cup, which goes out to the top all-around athletic program in the nation

Among other accolades, Bowlsby is on the U.S. Olympic Committee Board of Directors and was elected chairman of the U.S. Olympic Sports Liaison Committee.

The first item on the agenda for Bowlsby as the new commissioner is deciding whether or not to expand the conference to 11 or 12 teams. Four teams — Colorado and Nebraska in 2011, Texas A&M and Missouri in 2012 — have departed from the original 12 that comprised the conference’s lineup since its conception in 1996.

According to CBS Sports, if Bowlsby chooses to expand the conference to 11 teams, Louisville would be the first team that would be added. That would make Louisville the second Big East team to leave for the Big 12 following West Virginia, which will officially be joining the conference in July.

Bowlsby, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, graduated from Minnesota State-Moorhead in 1975 and also earned a master’s degree from Iowa in 1978.

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