With an accomplished record in collegiate athletics administration reaching over three decades, including achievements in NCAA Division I conference office operations and high-level NCAA Committee service, Tom Burnett serves as President/CEO of Southwest Sports Partners, LLC. 

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Additionally, in 2023, Burnett founded LONE STAR NIL, LLC, a unique Name, Image and Likeness educational services opportunity for the exclusive benefit of Texas-based student-athletes and connecting these high-achievers with the robust statewide business community.

 

As chief executive of Southwest Sports Partners, Burnett brings hands-on and oversight experience in championship event administration, financial matters, board management, membership governance, media and public relations, and television rights negotiation and production. Known as a creative and strategic planner, Burnett has a proven ability to communicate, develop relationships, build consensus, address challenges and solve problems, and effectively direct, motivate and develop staff.

 

Burnett served as commissioner of the Frisco, Texas-based Southland Conference from 2003-2022, becoming the longest tenured leader in the NCAA Division I league’s six decades of existence while providing a focus on the academic, competitive success and overall well-being of student-athletes. Additionally, he led the Southland to exponential growth in television coverage during his tenure as commissioner, including negotiating the league’s first multi-million dollar broadcast contract. 

 

He also led the successful community-wide effort to bring the NCAA Division I Football Championship Games to Frisco, as the Southland has served as the host conference for the national title contests at Toyota Stadium since 2011. The NCAA has subsequently renewed the agreement three times to keep the championship game in Frisco minimally through the 2026 event. In his new role at Southwest Sports, Burnett remained involved with the 2023 FCS Championship Game, serving as the Team Frisco local organizing committee’s host director.

 

Burnett served on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee from 2017-22, providing administrative oversight of March Madness, including the annual Men’s Final Four. Following the Covid-19 shutdown of 2020, he served as vice chair of the group, assisting with the return of the tournament in 2021’s controlled environment in Indianapolis.

 

Selected by his committee peers to serve as chairman of the selection committee in 2021-22, Burnett helped lead the NCAA Tournament's return to its traditional presence across the country, including the Final Four in New Orleans. Burnett's national committee term was  also marked by the move from the longstanding  Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) system to the current metric known as the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), and the committee also expanded in his final year from 10 to 12 members.

 

He's made multiple media appearances on CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports, the SEC Network and in the pages of The New York Times, USA Today and the Dallas Morning News. In 2022, he was honored by the National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame with its Legacy Award for extraordinary contributions to the organization and its mission of Building Leaders Through Football.

In June, Burnett was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as the recipient of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award, joining an accomplished group of competitive and sports media inductees in the Class of 2024.

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Prior to his service at the Southland Conference, Burnett worked in various roles at the Sun Belt and American South conferences from 1989-2003. A native of Houston, Burnett is a 1988 graduate of Louisiana Tech University, where he studied journalism and served one year as sports editor of the campus student newspaper.  In 2023, he was honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from West Monroe (La.) High School.

 

For over 20 years, he and his wife Tracy have resided in McKinney, Texas, and have two adult children, son Cole, a graduate of the University of North Texas, and daughter Jesse, a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and a third-year PharmD candidate at the Texas Tech University Health Science Center in Dallas.