Tom Holmoe, who announced on Tuesday he plans to retire at the end of the 2024-25 athletic season, played a pivotal role in helping the Cougars join the Big 12 Conference during his 20-year tenure at the school. Seeing BYU successfully transition from FBS independent to membership in a power conference became one of his overriding goals as athletic director.

Having accomplished that goal, he thinks the time is right to step aside and let someone else take the reins.

“I just believe that this is a really good time to make a smooth and effective and powerful transition,” Holmoe told reporters on Wednesday. “I see that the pieces are in place for us to continue to really thrive. The Big 12 has been a special blessing for all our teams. We all believe in the Big 12 and the leadership of the Big 12.”

BYU president Shane Reese said the university will conduct a national search for a successor and will “cast a broad net” in finding an athletic director who is passionate about the school’s athletics program while navigating the ever-changing college sports landscape brought on by NIL and the transfer portal.

Reese acknowledged that Holmoe will leave large shoes to fill as an athletic director.

“I don’t think you ever replace a man like Tom Holmoe,” Reese said. “I think there’s a successor in this role, but Tom Holmoe is an irreplaceable athletic director.”

Holmoe plans to stay aboard and finish out his current contract, which expires in August, to help with the transition. He made the decision to retire back in July, but put off publicly announcing his plans until after the conclusion of the 2024 football season.

“If I would have said something early on, it would have been a big distraction for our football team and our other teams,” Holmoe said.

Holmoe revealed that he signed a series of one-year contracts during his time as BYU’s athletic director. This arrangement goes against the grain in college sports, where long contracts for coaches and athletic directors are seen as a sign of stability and strength in everything from recruiting to fundraising.

He approached it from a different perspective. Signing a one-year contract each year infused Holmoe with a sense of urgency to do whatever he needed to do to help BYU improve its position in the athletic realm.

“I’ve been here for 23 years on a year-to-year contract. I never had a multiyear contract. I never asked for a multiyear contract. They never gave me a multiyear contract,” Holmoe said. “I literally wanted it to be where I had to work for my food.”

Holmoe was hired as BYU’s athletic director on March 1, 2005, after joining his alma mater in 2002 as an associate athletic director for development. He played for BYU’s football team under LaVell Edwards from 1978-82, earning first-team All-WAC honors as a senior.

The San Francisco 49ers selected Holmoe in the fourth round of the 1983 NFL Draft and he spent all seven of his NFL seasons in San Francisco. Holmoe played on three Super Bowl-winning teams with the 49ers in 1984, 1988 and 1989 before retiring from pro football at the age of 30. He moved into coaching, with stints as an assistant at BYU, Stanford, California and the 49ers before being promoted to California’s head coach in 1997. Holmoe coached the Bears for five seasons, posting a career record of 16-39 (.291).