Amid another frenzied wave of realignment, newly appointed Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark made perfectly clear that the conference is “open for business.”
Speaking at the opening press conference at Big 12 media days on Wednesday, Yormark reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening the league in whatever way possible, which includes being open to the idea of adding new members.
“One thing is for sure: The Big 12 is open for business,” he said, per Max Olson of The Athletic. “We will leave no stone unturned to drive value for the conference.”
Yormark’s remarks come less than two weeks after it was first reported that USC and UCLA would be leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten. The stunning move resulted in a flurry of rumors, including a report from Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports that suggested as many as six Pac-12 schools were reportedly engaged in “deep discussions” about joining the Big 12.
On Wednesday, Yormark said that he was somewhat excited by the UCLA-USC move because he “saw there was opportunity” for his own conference. When asked directly whether he’d received interest from Pac-12 programs since the Los Angeles schools made way for the Big Ten, Yormark revealed that he had received calls but neglected to get into specifics.
“We are exploring all options and we are open for business. I think it’s fair to say I’ve received a lot of phone calls, a lot of interest,” he said, per Olson. “Nothing is imminent.”
Yormark, who was officially introduced as the Big 12 commissioner on June 29 just a day before USC and UCLA went to the Big Ten, will face a number of hot-button issues in his first few years in the position. In the middle of a quickly developing NIL landscape, he’s poised to oversee the departure of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC by 2025, a renegotiation of the conference’s media rights deal which ends after the 2024–25 season and the welcoming of four other institutions—UCF, Houston, Cincinnati and BYU—into the conference.
Despite the challenges he’s due to come across, Yormark expressed a tone of optimism in Wednesday’s press conference about what’s to come for the Big 12.
“I think there’s incredible upside with the Big 12,” he said, per Olson. “It’s one of the reasons I’m here today. We have a chance to build our brand and business, nationalize our conference in a way that hasn’t been done before.”
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