FRISCO, Texas — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark opened media days at The Star on Tuesday with a long address and a question-and-answer session with the media. Here were five takeaways from the address.
Big 12 On a Global Stage
Yormark made it clear that he wants the Big 12 to be the “most globally relevant conference in college athletics.” This year the league will have two games abroad. TCU will face North Carolina in Dublin, Ireland, during zero week, and then Arizona State faces Kansas at Wembley Stadium in London during Big 12 action.
He listed some of the reasons why it’s a priority. That includes the fact that 14% of Big 12 athletes are from outside the U.S. and that six Big 12 schools have a campus outside the U.S. He noted that Arizona State is opening a campus in London this fall.
But there is revenue to be generated and attention to be grabbed by doing so as well and he appears to have no intention of taking his foot off the gas.
“I do like the NFL model and where they’re going,” Yormark said of their scheduling model “I like the NBA and where they’re going. If you think about where we’ve played internationally, it’s pretty consistent and aligns well with where the NFL and the NBA have been. We’ll see where we go in the future.”
Seems like a consistent yearly conference game in a foreign country is a pretty good bet moving forward. How that translates to other sports is less clear. Basketball could work. But can teams afford one league game in London with several days off before and after? Perhaps in January before school starts?
The BYU Chant
Yormark again expressed his “zero tolerance” policy for the anti-LDS BYU chant that happens from time to time at sporting events. You know the one.
“We have a meeting set up with the presidents which make up our board and our ADs in August to address that situation and that topic very intentionally to make sure we are better next year,” he said.
That’s fine. But we also know the schools aren’t the problem. It’s the fans that engage in the chant. The logical recourse in this situation is to fine the school, but they can only police it after it happens. They can’t keep fans from doing it (this isn’t a Minority Report situation). Sure, the athletic director and university president can ask, or even beg fans not to do it. But it only takes one bad actor to get the ball rolling. Plus, those fans don’t care if the school gets fine. They figure they’re good for the money.
I think it’s stupid and hateful. But short of costing teams wins or losses, I’m not sure that discussion in August gets things much further down the road than stiffer fines.
I ask those that have used that chant — what do you get out of it? Seriously, what does it do for you?
Congressional Legislation
The Protect College Sports Act isn’t perfect, Yormark said. But he laid out the parts that he supports and is happy with before heads to Congress next week to continue working on it.
“I think about some of the elements of the bill that I like, it starts with agent restrictions, which we need,” Yormark said. “Federal preemption, limited liability protection, the transfer portal, eligibility, cap circumvention, just to name a few.”
I’m still skeptical that the bill gets passed. I’m still skeptical that certain conferences will allow themselves to be governed by it, even if it becomes law. To some degree it seems like a boondoggle destined to fail. I say again — this is the NCAA’s business. It’s up to them to figure out.
The Texas Tech Moment
For those that want the full play-by-play, here is the exchange between Texas Tech media member Sean Dillon and Yormark about, well not about Sorsby, but essentially how aggrieved Tech feels at the moment (this comes after Dillon originally asked the question and Yormark decided to walk over to the stage and ask him to stand up and ask it again).
Q. Texas Tech got fined for tortillas, and tortillas were banned outright. OSU has had paddles that were given a noisemaker exemption back in 2012. Sorsby never played a snap for the Red Raiders, and yet there’s a lawsuit. Cincinnati has yet to be touched. You’re selling greater than 12. Why should Texas Tech fans believe that?
BRETT YORMARK: No, I didn’t say greater than 12. You misquoted me. I said we’re going forward as 16 strong, and that’s my answer to your question, but thank you for that question. Appreciate it.
I didn’t think Yormark handled this well. Perhaps he’s mending fences behind the scenes with Tech, but he needs to do that publicly, too. He doesn’t need to “bend the knee” to Tech in any way. He did the right thing, Sorsby could not play this season. That’s not Tech’s fault. That’s just how it had to be to respect the integrity of the sport. Yes, the question was combative, but it was designed to be. Yormark could have found a much better way to defuse it. But he received an earlier question about it, and he also shut it down. He can’t just make it go away, especially from Tech’s perspective.
He doesn’t need to do this to risk losing Tech as a member. The only way that happens is if college football blows up in 2030 and there’s another mad dash of realignment that has nothing to do with this. He just needs to do it on order to put the news cycle to bed.
In the meantime, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire was here on Tuesday and, frankly, handled the questions about Sorsby much better. Perhaps it was how they were posed to him as opposed to Yormark. But he was able to address it without creating a viral moment.
The Big 12 is a ‘Monster’
Yormark announced the league’s partnership with Monster energy drink, which includes titling the upcoming regular seasons “Monster Energy Big 12 Football” and “Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball.” That is how the league will refer to it in conference-controlled assets and platforms. There will also be a co-branded Monster Energy and Big 12 Conference logo that will be featured on football and basketball jerseys, fields and courts.
Just don’t expect those of us in the media to refer to it as that. I don’t get paid enough for that. It’s not clear how much money the deal generates, but for a league like the Big 12 it’s not about striking one BIG deal, it’s about as many streams of revenue as possible.
But it’s another example of how Yormark is doing everything possible to generate as much revenue as possible for the league. This is a multi-year partnership and was likely facilitated with RedBird Capital and with Weatherford, the league’s private capital partners.
Remember a couple of years ago there was the thought that the Big 12 would be called the Allstate Big 12 Conference? Well, this is a more palatable alternative. It will be interesting to see if any of the other conferences follow suit.
