McManus, the long-time president of both the sports and news divisions at CBS, was promoted to the newly created post of Chairman of CBS Sports Tuesday. At the same time, the company announced that he will step down as president of the news division, a post he has held since 2005.

In a statement announcing the change, Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS, said the move was being made to free McManus to have a stronger presence in managing the company's sports properties, including the most well-rounded of the broadcast sports divisions, as well as CBS College Sports Channel.

Under the leadership of McManus, who has been president of CBS Sports since 1995, the company got back into the NFL in 1998, after previous president Neal Pilson allowed the network to lose the NFC package to FOX in 1994. McManus not only extended CBS's deal with the NCAA for rights to the men's basketball tournament twice during his tenure, but he brought in Turner as a partner to defray production and rights costs in a new deal that keeps the Final Four through 2024, and thus kept it away from competitors, namely ESPN.

McManus, the son of legendary broadcaster Jim McKay, has also struck successful deals with the Augusta National Country Club and the PGA of America to keep two of golf's four majors, the Masters and the PGA Championship, as well as with the Southeastern Conference for first choice of the league's football games and the league championship game.