KANSAS

Big 12 Media Days Preview: 52 Days Until Kansas Football

The Big 12 teams are converging on Arlington TX for the first (and maybe only) Big 12 Media Days event with 14 teams.

Andy Mitts

© Annie Rice/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
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Starting tomorrow morning, the new-look Big 12 conference kicks off its first Big 12 Media Days with 12 or more members in over a decade. The event kicks off at noon with Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, with half of the teams coming to the podium each day.

Contents

  1. Schedule
  2. Kansas Contingent
  3. Storylines to Watch

Last season was one of upheaval, as the college football world was coming to grips with the fallout of Oklahoma and Texas leaving to the SEC. Then the Big 10 pulled UCLA and USC off the west coast, and all hell broke loose.

Last year's Big 12 Media Days was the first opportunity to hear from Yormark. And while the expectations were all over the place, it was hard to consider his appearance as anything but a success.

The Kansas Jayhawks are bringing a diverse group of players to Media Days this season, headlined by Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Jalon Daniels.

Schedule

Media Days will be shown live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with the broadcast slated to start at 11:30am on Wednesday, July 12th. Commissioner Brett Yormark will open up the program with some remarks, after which the coaches will start to take the podium. Starting the day on Thursday, July 14th will be Matthew Sign, National Football Foundation Chief Operating Officer, at 9am. There will be no presentation by the director of officials this season.

The schedule for the head coach press conferences are below (all times Central). Each coach will be live on the ESPNU set before their press conference, and the players from the team will be on the set during the press conference.

Wednesday

1:15 - 1:30pm: TCU Coach Sonny Dykes
1:45 - 2:00pm: Houston Coach Dana Holgorsen
2:10 - 2:25pm: Kansas Coach Lance Leipold
2:35 - 2:50pm: Baylor Coach Dave Aranda
3:00 - 3:15pm: Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy
3:25 - 3:40pm: Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian
3:50 - 4:05pm: BYU Coach Kalani Sitake

Thursday

9:15 - 9:30am: Kansas State Coach Chris Klieman
9:45 - 10:00am: UCF Coach Gus Malzahn
10:10 - 10:25am: Texas Tech Coach Joey McGuire
10:35 - 10:50am: Cincinnati Coach Scott Satterfield
11:00 - 11:15am: West Virginia Coach Neal Brown
11:25 - 11:40am: Iowa State Coach Matt Campbell
11:50am - 12:05pm: Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables

Kansas Contingent

In addition to Leipold and Daniels, the Jayhawks are sending 3 other players to Media Days: senior safety Kenny Logan Jr,, junior running back Devin Neal and senior linebacker Rich Miller.

The players will be making the rounds on Wednesday, with appearances with ESPN, SiriusXM, ESPNU, CBS, Fox, and live radio hits throughout the day. Lance Leipold will make the same rounds, but not at the exact same time.

We will keep track of any news that breaks and bring you some reactions to everything tomorrow.

Storylines to Watch

Once again, there are plenty of storylines to watch this season. Don't expect any breaking news, but here are some things we are looking for:

  • New Teams - The only new coaches in the conference this year are those coming with their schools into the first year of Big 12 play. The addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF gives the conference a much more diverse set of locations for games. Add in the intrigue of the first year in a Power Five conference for these schools and you have the recipe for a bunch of eyeballs and questions.
  • Next Season Structural Setup - While the final season with Oklahoma and Texas hasn't officially begun, many people are already looking ahead to next year, when the conference falls back down to 12. What will the scheduling philosophy be? And with reports about the Big 12 being ready to move forward with a small list of schools, is more realignment on the horizon?.
  • Yormark's Next Big Project - The Big 12 Commissioner has been pretty busy with a bunch of new initiatives, and it's only a matter of time before something new gets announced. I think a lot of people may be looking for more details on the Big 12 Mexico initiative that was unveiled recently, but I more curious as to what the next big thing is going to be. Yormark has really taken the unofficial slogan of "Hipper. Younger. Cooler." seriously and really pushed into innovative areas for the conference.

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Published
Andy Mitts
ANDY MITTS

Andy Mitts is an alumnus of the University of Kansas, graduating in 2007. He previously covered the Jayhawks at Rock Chalk Talk and is now the editor-in-chief at Blue Wing Rising. He hosts the Kansas-themed Rock Chalk Podcast, and is VP of Membership of the Ten 12 Podcast Network. Follow him on Twitter @AndyMitts12.

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