The Big East Conference hired former Major League Baseball executive and former Georgetown student athlete Tim Brosnan as its next commissioner on Monday.
Brosnan will oversee the 11-team league and succeeds outgoing commissioner Val Ackerman, who announced her retirement on April 20 after 13 years in charge. Aug. 31 is Akerman’s last day on the job.
The hiring comes on the heels of a comprehensive national search conducted by the conference’s board of directors, composed of the presidents of the league’s 11 member institutions. St. John’s University President Rev. Brian J. Shanley O.P., the chair of the conference’s board of directors, led the search.
“In our search for the next Commissioner of the BIG EAST, we prioritized finding someone with extensive experience in the area of revenue generation and who would best fit the mission and vision of our conference going forward,” Shanley said.
“Over the course of his career, Tim Brosnan has shown himself to be a smart, highly respected leader with high personal and professional values rooted in his dedication to the service of others. His track record of forging highly successful partnerships will be critical in this new era of college athletics. Tim is a relationship-builder and, as a former student-athlete in the conference, cares deeply about the success of the young men and women who represent the Big East.”
Brosnan, who grew up in Manhattan and received a Law degree from Fordham, will become the league’s sixth commissioner, succeeding Dave Gavitt, Mike Tranghese, John Marinatto, Mike Aresco, and Ackerman.
A Georgetown alumnus and former captain of its baseball team, Bronson served on the Board of Regents at his alma mater as chairman of the Athletic Committee. He was also the head executive of Hoyas Risina, a private company that served as the external NIL collective for Georgetown athletics.
“The Big East is one of the most iconic brands in college sports, and I am grateful and deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead the conference into its next chapter,” Brosnan said.
Brosnan brings a wealth of experience from being a top MLB executive from 1991 to 2014. In that span, he played an instrumental role in the creation of MLB Network, the league’s 24/7 channel, which was launched in 2009 to 50 million households, and the World Baseball Classic, an international tournament featuring multiple countries competing against each other.
Brosnan was once the league’s chief operating officer, executive vice president for business, and president and CEO of MLB Enterprises, helping grow the league’s industry-wide revenue from $1.5 billion when he started to nearly $8.5 billion in 2015, following his departure.
Brosnan was in the running to become the league’s commissioner in 2014, but lost out on the role to Rob Manfred.
He left the league to pursue other business ventures, including serving as an Advisory Board Member at FanDuel and as Executive Chair at PrimeSport, and as a board member of both private and public corporations.
The Big East’s hiring of Brosnan is an indication of the league’s willingness to embrace a new business-forward approach to collegiate athletics. He also gives the conference a new figurehead with an extensive background in business and television.
Brosnan joins the Big East, a league best known for its basketball programs, as it looks to assert itself among other top conferences, such as the SEC and Big Ten, which also have widely successful football programs.
He is also joining at a period where multiple schools have found success on the national stage. Just this past season, UConn men’s basketball reached the National Championship game after winning back-to-back national titles from 2023 to 2024. As the Huskies rose to fame, St. John’s men’s basketball won consecutive Big East regular season and tournament titles en route to reaching the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.
“Together with our member institutions, and all of our Big East partners, we will continue to elevate the student-athlete experience, strengthen the conference’s competitive position, and embrace the opportunities that lie ahead while staying true to the values that have defined the Big East for generations,” Brosnan added.
