KANSAS CITY — Second-year Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark opened the Big 12 basketball media gathering at T-Mobile Center on Tuesday with plenty of praise for the league’s prowess in roundball, which he says is unequaled in America.
“The Big 12 is the best conference in the country in the game of basketball,” Yormark said.
“I won’t be commenting on expansion speculation today. But I will say this: It is no different than last year. If an opportunity presents itself in this conference I am going to explore it.” — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark
But the conversation quickly turned to conference expansion — recent and future, perhaps — and football, which is king when it comes to college sports.
“On the football front, we are working diligently as well,” Yormark said. “Our scheduling is being guided by a few key parameters — geography, competitive balance, historic matchups and rivalries.”
With the so-called four corners schools — Utah, Colorado, Arizona State and Arizona — joining the conference in 2024, Yormark said from the podium that more details will be released in the coming weeks regarding what that schedule will look like.
When asked for a 2024 Big 12 football schedule release date in a group interview later, Yormark said it will “hopefully” come out earlier than January, which is when the 2023 schedule was released.
“Yeah, I would think December is probably (close), sometime late November or December,” he said.
Judging from his comments at the podium, in a Q&A session, and in the media scrum, Yormark definitely wants to make the BYU-Utah rivalry an essential part of the conference that will include 16 schools in 2024.
“We are exploring all that right now. We haven’t come up with any definitive decisions, but rivalries, historic matchups, are critically important for us,” he said. “They are some of our guiding principles. So as I sit here today with no definitive answer, I would say it is most likely that that will occur. But nothing has been cemented yet.”
Asked specifically about preserving the BYU-Utah rivalry, Yormark said he is looking forward to the matchup continuing when the Utes come aboard in 2024.
“It is great for our conference, and our media networks like it, too. So we are working through all those things, but rivalries matter. Historic matchups matter,” he said. “But we also have to take into account geography and the student-athlete dynamic as well. … It is what our fans want, it is what our TV partners want, it is what our conference wants. So we are vetting through that now.”
Yormark attended the BYU-Baylor football game in Provo last year, and the BYU-Cincinnati game last month.
“It was great. A lot of pageantry. A lot of emotion from the fans. I went to all the schools on their first Big 12 home game,” he said. “BYU was fantastic. The fans were ready for the moment. I was at BYU last year for the first year, so I had some prior exposure. But they do a great job there.”
Of course, Tuesday featured plenty of basketball talk as well.
Reports surfaced Oct. 9 that the Big 12 and Gonzaga have resumed conversations about the Zags possibly joining the league prior to the 2024-25 season. It hasn’t been clear whether that would be for all sports (Gonzaga doesn’t have football), or just men’s and women’s basketball, or just a handful of other sports.
“I won’t be commenting on expansion speculation today,” Yormark said. “But I will say this: It is no different than last year. If an opportunity presents itself in this conference I am going to explore it.”
With Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State joining next year and Texas and Oklahoma departing for the SEC, the Big 12 in 2024-25 will include 16 schools.
Yormark said Big 12 men’s basketball will feature a 20-game men’s schedule, and an 18-game women’s schedule. He said the league’s women’s coaches have pushed for two fewer league games than the men.
Here is more from Yormark on a variety of topics
• The commissioner said the Big 12 will implement “broadcast enhancements and innovation” to both men’s and women’s basketball this upcoming season. He said the conference is working with ESPN to explore an “alternate broadcast” for a game or two “that will appeal to a younger audience and further connect our conference to culture.” He didn’t provide details.
• Both the men’s and women’s conference tournaments will be held at T-Mobile Center next spring, and Yormark said the league is currently in discussions with Kansas City to extend the agreement through 2031.
“While nothing is definitive at this point, we are excited about the prospect of calling Kansas City home for years to come,” he said. “We hope to finalize this by the start of the championships next spring.”
• Yormark reiterated that he believes Big 12 basketball is “undervalued” and he will continue to push its footprint. For instance, Houston and Kansas will play in Mexico City in December of 2024.
“No sport connects better with culture than basketball,” Yormark said. “It is also a great catalyst for international growth. It resonates with younger audiences. It will continue to play a huge role in the growth of our industry.”
• Asked whether basketball television rights will ever be negotiated separately than football, Yormark said it is a possibility but not something on the near horizon.
“My job as a commissioner, our job as a conference office, is to explore all options to further monetize what we do and create value for our member institutions,” he said. “If a situation presents itself where we can create more value by decoupling football from basketball, we are going to pursue it. But that doesn’t mean we are going to do it. It is all about the value equation.”
• Having realized his “dream scenario” in early August of adding the four corners schools for 2024, Yormark was asked what would be his next goal for the league.
“Just to continue to create value where I can,” he said. “When I think about our conference, we are 27 years old. We are a mature startup. We are in our infancy stages. We have to explore every opportunity to continue to grow and create value for our member institutions and that is what my job is. There is nothing imminent.”
That said, Yormark added that the four incoming schools from the Pac-12 have already begun attending meetings and have been “strategizing” for next year.
“Right now we love the makeup and composition of this conference, love the four corners (schools) that are joining us,” he said. “They have already started to integrate. … So there is nothing imminent on expansion. We are really happy with where we are at now. We have become national. That was a goal of ours, from coast to coast.
We have doubled down on basketball for the right reasons through expansion and I am very bullish on our future.”
• Yomark didn’t say much about what the new schools will bring in 2024, but he did acknowledge the league is “getting better in basketball, both men’s and women’s” and that the conference tournaments will be ultra-competitive.
“And with Olympic sports, with the incoming four, we got much better in Olympic sports,” he said. “So when I think about our future I think about it from a three-pronged approach: How do we continue to grow football? How do we keep doubling down on basketball? And how do we elevate and amplify Olympic sports for all the right reasons?
I am very bullish on where we are going and the future of this conference.”
