Jul 13, 2022; Arlington, TX, USA; Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark talks with the media during the Big 12 Media Day at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports — © Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Big 12 Introduces Commissioner Brett Yormark: 'We're Open For Business'

The new head man at the conference office is ready to make his mark on college sports.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Jul 13, 2022 3:52 PM EDT

CINCINNATI — UC enters the Big 12 in less than a year, and they have a better sense of the league's direction after incoming commissioner Brett Yormark spoke at Media Day.

The former Brooklyn Nets and Roc Nation executive made it clear that the league isn't standing by on expansion, or anything else that could position the Big 12 as a power player in college sports for years to come.

Check out some of his most important comments below.

On why he chose this point of his career to get into college sports:

Early in my career, I put together a progression ladder. It started with working for the New Jersey Nets, and it ended with a vision to be in college athletics. My passion for the collegiate space was fueled even more so with my many years at Barclays Center, where in a very short period of time we became a college basketball destination.

What excites me most about joining the Big 12 is the transformative moment in front of all of us today. We have an opportunity to grow and build the Big 12 brand and business, be aspirational, define our point of difference, all while never losing our commitment to always compete and develop our student-athletes at the highest levels.

Moments like these do not happen often, and we must seize them and make the most of them. It will require incredible work and collaboration.

One thing is for sure. There is no doubt the Big 12 is open for business. We will leave no stone unturned to drive value for the conference. Just as I pledged to the board, we will be bold and humble, aggressive and thoughtful, and innovative and creative, all in an effort to position the conference in a way that not only grows the Big 12 brand and business but makes us a bit more contemporary.

On the Big 12 talking with Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State and why it makes sense to pounce:

It's a great question. Again, I'll say that there is not a definitive plan right now. We're exploring all options.

I can assure you that given the time I've spent with our presidents, our chancellors, our athletic directors, we are a very unified group. Bob mentioned that during his opening comments. It was one of the things that drew me to the job, the alignment that the board and AD community all have for going forward.

As we vet out the possibilities, everything will be additive, nothing will be dilutive, and I feel very confident that our conference is in the best position it's ever been in before. Bob is leaving us in a great place.

On how he'll help schools approach NIL deals moving forward

Well, I can say at a high level, I'm an advocate of NIL. I've gotten my feet wet to some degree at Roc Nation, where we have been engaged with NIL.

From a personal point of view, I have not really spoken to many of our key stakeholders about it. I think there needs to be guardrails. There probably needs to be uniformity. Maybe the conference needs to take a bigger role in what NIL looks like going forward.

But I think, given my background, having spent so much time in the commercial space, I'm very well-suited for NIL in whatever form it takes on a go-forward basis.

On turning the Big 12 into a national brand:

From my perspective, again, Bob has positioned the brand in a great way, but I think there's opportunities, as I learn a little bit more about the brand and our fan base, to become a little bit more national, to position our brand a little younger, hipper, cooler, how do we connect a youth culture, diversify some of the things we're doing. And I think we have a great opportunity to do that.

I've been in the brand-building business and the business-building business in my days at NASCAR where we took a sport from predominantly the South and where the roots were and made it a national phenomenon. Obviously, in Brooklyn, we moved the team from the Nets, which was a bit of a depressed brand and franchise, and made it into a global brand.

My goal is to do something very similar here, and I'm excited about it, and I'm excited to go to work.

On expanding the College Football Playoff:

Good questions. As far as the first one on CFP, I plan on spending a lot of time with Bob, obviously. He was intimately involved in expansion conversations and modeling. I do get D1.ticker now so I'm keeping myself abreast of who's saying what in that space.

I look forward to spending time also with Bill Hancock. He is one of the first meetings I'll be taking here in Dallas when I start on August 1, and I look forward to having meaningful conversations with my fellow Power Five commissioners on that subject.

On the conference's upcoming TV contract negotiations:

First of all, I'm bullish on the conference. What we look like today and what we look like when we enter those negotiations could be very different.

Obviously, we've got three more years with our current partners. I've had a working relationship with ESPN and FOX for many years. I'm big fans of what they do. They're the best in the business. I look forward to at the right time engaging with them on meaningful conversations on how we can enhance and amplify the value equation and how they glamorize and promote and market our great conference.

There aren't any specifics that I can speak to now as far as how we're going to position ourselves differently because there's a long time between now and when we'll commence negotiation, but I'm looking forward to that moment.

And as I said earlier, everything we do from this point forward will lead towards that negotiation period, how we build our brand, how we build our business, conference realignment. All that will probably play a role in whatever dialogue we have.

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