Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark wants to ‘nationalize’ conference
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has a grand vision for what he wants the league to look like in the next few years.
“I want student athletes from coast to coast to vote yes for this conference,” Yormark said at the Big 12 Basketball Tipoff Tuesday. “Right now they always vote for schools, I want to give them another reason to vote for this conference. I want them to recognize us and all of the things we’re doing and be on their consciousness. I’m not sure that’s happening right now.”
Yormark wants the Big 12 to become a national brand like the SEC and the Big 10. Ohio State and Alabama are major brands nationally, but they’re viewed as one major component of their leagues.
You could make the case Oklahoma and Texas were bigger name brands than the actual Big 12. How can Yormark change that with both of those programs slated to depart soon?
Well it’ll help that both schools reaffirmed their commitment to remain in the league until 2025.
“They’re going to be until ‘25. They’ve reiterated that commitment and they’ll be here through the duration. My relationship with both Texas and Oklahoma is very strong,” Yormark said.
With those brands still in the fold for the next few seasons, Yormark is going to be aggressive with shaping how the conference is viewed and discussed.
“We’re not there yet (with branding). In fact we announced yesterday, Translation is our new creative agency, they’ll be working alongside LDWW. I felt the need for some creative firepower as we think about this brand,” Yormark said.
Yormark says the two agencies and the conference will be working hand in hand the next few months to establish a gameplan for how the Big 12 will approach capturing the attention and interest of national audiences.
“As we modernize, we’re going to a get a little bit younger from the standpoint of who our audience will be. Next July, when we formally welcome the four new member institutions I think that’s when you’ll visually be able to see the new Big 12 and the work that’s been done,” Yormark said.
The arrival of BYU, Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida are crucial to Yormark’s plans. The additions establish the conference in Florida, the Mountain Time Zone and another stronghold in the Midwest.
He didn’t close the door on adding more schools via expansion.
“As I’ve said before back in July we’re open for business in every respect. If there’s an opportunity that presents itself and it’s truly additive and creates value and extends our geographic footprint and puts us in a fourth time zone, why not? It has to be all about value creation,” Yormark said.
Adding a school on the west coast, say a Pac-12 school, could be extremely valuable in the eyes of ESPN and Fox.
“If we can offer continued scheduling flexibility for our media partners, we’d like to pursue it. We’re vetting out any and all possibilities,” Yormark said.
As he does what he can to make the Big 12 as competitive as possible, Yormark also issued a bit of a challenge to ESPN and Fox during negotiations that went beyond just a dollar figure.
“The economics matter, but I want a real partnership. We have a great partnership with both, but everybody needs to step up their game. More marketing, more promotion, more support of our student-athletes in all the right ways and more storytelling. Economics matter, but it’s those fringe benefits that make a deal or don’t make a deal,” Yormark said.
Here are more quick takeaways from the commissioner:
An update on football scheduling
Next year’s conference schedule will be released in late November or early December. Even with the Big 12 becoming a 14-league team, Yormark says the conference won’t go to divisions and will keep the nine-game conference schedule. With a few tweaks of course.
“Over a two-year period, each of the schools will play each other at least once. I’m excited about what that schedule looks like when we finally put it out,” Yormark said. “Rivalries will be preserved, obviously we’ll look at geography and see what’s best from a student-athlete perspective in terms of travel.”
That means TCU will face BYU, Houston, Cincinnati and UCF at least once the next two seasons. It seems likely the schedule will feature games with all the Texas programs while alternating long road trips to UCF, West Virginia and BYU.
No changes to the conference championships
Yormark says there aren’t any plans to move the Big 12 basketball tournament from Kansas City or the Big 12 football championship from AT&T Stadium anytime soon.
“We love Kansas City, prior to me signing on we extended through 2027. We’ll have the women coming over in 2024, so for the foreseeable future we’re here,” Yormark said. “We extended the football championship through 2025 and we’re excited to be in Dallas. It’s a great market, AT&T Stadium is a world class venue and they do great things for us.”
While the Big 12 is established in those two markets, Yormark said he remains open to creating more events across the country.
“I would like to create some tentpole events outside of our championship events that could give us a chance to showcase who we are and where we’re going in major markets across this country in an effort to nationalize this conference,” Yormark said.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 1:42 PM.
