It took Brett Yormark just over 90 days to heal the Big 12.
The new commissioner of the often-battered Big 12 Conference that has suffered defections, poaching and fractures just realized a six-year TV deal with ESPN/Fox that would bring northward of $50 million per team when the contract begins in 2024.
Yormark is known as a deal-maker and even some of his critics on the West Coast in Pac-12 territory have to credit him for pulling off a 20% raise for teams in the Big 12 without the cachet of the Red River rivalry — Texas and Oklahoma.
Even his predecessor, Bob Bowlsby, believed the loss of Texas and Oklahoma would cut the potential revenue of the league in half.
Wrong.
For a league that lost Nebraska (which has struggled), Colorado (struggling) and Texas A&M (four-game losing streak in the SEC), this is a huge victory for the Big 12.
ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla tweeted, “I’ve only spent 10 minutes with new @Big12Conference Commissioner Brett Yormark but I am not surprised by kudos he’s getting for @espn & @FoxSports TV deals. I suspect he may have something up his sleeve regarding expansion, too.”
A few golden Yormark touches stand out in this new deal, a story that the Sports Business Journal broke out on Sunday.
First, he moved up the date for negotiating with the TV partners from 2024 to the summer of 2022. This coincided with the Pac-12’s window to negotiate its TV deals early.
Second, he found a way to sell the Big 12 as a competitive product with tremendous parity, making game packages entertaining and worth extra money. The fact neither Texas nor Oklahoma played for or will play for the Big 12 football title in 2021 or 2022 proved his point. There are blue blood brands, then there are competitive football games. The Big 12 teams went to work and proved him right, especially Kansas State, TCU, Oklahoma State and Baylor.
Third, Yormark did a hard sell on Big 12 basketball as the best college product in the land.
Well, because it is.
Fourth, he got a pro rata clause in the new deal that would allow for an adjustment in payout if the league had any future expansion during the span of the deal. This has now become a real piece of candy to waggle in front of Pac-12 corner schools (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah) sometimes mentioned as possible targets.
Fifth, Yormark set the expiration date for a new contract before the ACC and SEC are supposed to renegotiate their deals. This sets up the opportunity to work out a deal and renegotiate his second TV deal before those other entities.
Sixth, this new deal gives the league stability, at least in the near future. This is good money, this 20% raise.
This new deal, which is estimated to lift Big 12 team payouts per year from $31 to $41 will ultimately be more than $50 million once the CFP money is added along with tier three rights, according to most experts close to the industry.
Jason Scheer, an outcast in the Pac-12 propaganda machinery centered in the league’s California Bay Area and Pacific Northwest, tweeted: Pac-12 Athletic Directors are being told that Big-12 schools will reach $55 million annually. That’s the Big-12 pitch and the Pac-12 won’t reach that.
Yormark is the guy who got in the blocks at the starting line for the 100-meter dash this summer and broke the tape in the first heat with a remarkable standard on the clock.
The Big 12 is lucky to have him as the new hire and new face of ideas on the block.
And BYU’s struggling football team is lucky to be invited to that league along with fellow newcomers Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida.
Now there’s the issue of preparing for the Big 12 competition, which this current team is struggling to fulfill.
But that’s an issue for another day.
