Holiday Over, Big 12 and New Commissioner Brett Yormark Moving Forward
STILLWATER – New Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark doesn’t officially start his tenure as league commish until Aug. 1, but from the sounds of it the veteran sports sales and marketing representative and executive had no time for fireworks or picnics the Fourth of July weekend. It sounds like the “boom” of the holiday was more Zoom for Yormark. We know he had a Zoom meeting with the Big 12 athletic directors on Friday and Pokes Report learned that he was on a Zoom or call with all of the Big 12 present, soon-to-be past, and soon-to be-joining school CEOs on Tuesday morning.
Our guess is Yormark has been like a sponge since he was officially announced early last week and then got his rapid introduction to the dog-eat-dog world of college conference realignment with the Big Ten’s Thursday move to set up a Western front in the securing of membership from USC and UCLA.
The athletic directors came out of their Zoom introduction impressed with Yormark and the very sketchy word was the Presidents and Chancellors of the Big 12 now and in the future were equally, if not greater impressed on how fast their new commissioner gathers information and grasp the lay of the land.
The word “aggressive” has been used in the description of Brett Yormark by each source we spoke with. One of the new commissioner’s biggest problems is the division within his own ranks. It is hard to lay all the strategy on the table when you have the equivalent of the fox-in-the-hen-house presence of Oklahoma and Texas involved in your meetings and even the new schools of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF involved.
Collecting information from various sources including those outside Oklahoma State and the Big 12 purview, everything is on the table.
We did learn that the Oregon and Washington move to the Big Ten may not be as much of a slam dunk as we were led to believe on Saturday. Perhaps, Oregon and Washington have a greater allegiance to in-state rivals and educational partners than Oklahoma had to Oklahoma State and Texas to Texas Tech or the private schools they’ve been affiliated with in the old Southwest Conference and then Big 12.
That could make things interesting for Big 12 and Pac-12 considerations. Bringing together any combination of Pac-12 schools or introducing any sort of permanent merger increases in value greatly with the Ducks and the Huskies involved. If you had a conference with Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and a football power like Utah with a rivalry in place with future Big 12 member BYU, then you add Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor, BYU, and Cincinnati, a combination of proven brands with bright significant rising ones, then you aren’t an equal to the SEC or Big Ten, but you are in the ballpark.
Earlier reports had the Big 12 looking at Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah and even meeting with them as early as today (July 5). Those four schools have value. Utah is a really good football program, but the others are sketchy based on current success, television numbers, and possible NCAA infractions with Arizona State.
We also know that across the board and outside of the current SEC and Big Ten membership there is plenty of anxiety to see the conference realignment process hit its end or at least a point of stability before the upcoming 2022 season.
Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy was absolutely right this spring. Remember when he was criticized by the media for suggesting the best move in the COVID pandemic was to get your athletes back on campus? Some writers completely threw Gundy under the bus, but he ended up being right. Now, Gundy’s projection of conference realignment is being written about again with credit that the coach knew what he was talking about.
Along those lines, now that Yormark has met with the Big 12 athletic directors and the school CEOs, we’ve learned he is also looking to establish connections to the Big 12 head football coaches. That tells me that Yormark has a complete understanding of what is important here and who has views that can be beneficial to the outcome.
Nothing is off the table, so it seems. Also, the anxiety of the USC and UCLA move to the Big Ten has put desires for a somewhat permanent position as a high priority.
There is still no substitute for membership in either the SEC or Big Ten as that is where the most money will be and it is a sure thing.
The ACC has problems as they have a well-written and strict grant-in-rights signed and in effect through 2035 and their current multi-media rights deal. Can any conference find a way to pry attractive additions like Notre Dame, Clemson, Florida State, and Miami out from the ACC?
The Big 12 is an aggressor and on the prowl with a new commissioner that is working at warp speed compared to the former commissioner.
Stay tuned because this is a story that is not going away and will potentially change day-to-day.