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Mountain West names former Pac-12 administrator Gloria Nevarez as next conference commissioner

Alex Weberby: Alex Weber11/11/22Alexhweber
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Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

As of New Years 2023, the Mountain West Conference will have a brand new commissioner. The conference announced Friday that Gloria Nevarez will take over the position at the start of 2023 as longtime commissioner Craig Thompson steps down.

Navarez has worked in college athletics for 25 years, spent some time with the Pac-12 and has been the commissioner of the West Coast Conference (WCC) since 2018 (the one with Gonzaga and BYU). An extremely qualified candidate set to become just the second commissioner in the history of the MWC, and obviously, the first female.

Here was her statement on accepting the position, via the MWC website:

“I am honored and humbled to be trusted to lead one of the nation’s elite athletic conferences, and I want to thank the Board of Directors for their belief in me and in my vision,” Nevarez said. “We are well-positioned as a league thanks to the incredible legacy of Commissioner Thompson, but we cannot—and will not—rest on our success. We will be aggressive, we will be innovative, we will be inclusive and we will keep our focus on the student-athletes who call the Mountain West Conference home. I cannot wait to visit our campuses, our Conference staff, and our fans, and to begin the work ahead.”

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The conference also issued a statement expressing their excitement for the future under Nevarez:

“We are absolutely thrilled that Gloria will lead our membership into the future during a critical and challenging period in intercollegiate athletics,” Stokes said. “We had an impressive pool of candidates, but in the end, Gloria had the vision, the experience, the desire and the ability to elevate our league and our twelve member institutions. She will be a great leader for the Conference and take us to unprecedented heights, after working closely with Craig in the upcoming transition. On behalf of the MWC Board of Directors, we welcome Gloria and her husband, Rick, to our family.”