Tag: Brett Yormark

Big 12 football media days are heading to Sin City

The Big 12 is heading out west for its annual media days.

The Big 12 announced on Monday that the conference will hold its annual media days session in Las Vegas, Nevada. Big 12 Media Days will take place on Jul. 9 and 10.

Normally this would take place not too far from conference headquarters at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Due to a scheduling conflict, the Big 12 and Commissioner Brett Yormark will head west.

“I’m thrilled to announce Big 12 Football Media Days are heading west for the first time in league history,” said Yormark. “The Big 12 lives at the intersection of sports and entertainment – as the Entertainment Capital of the World, Las Vegas is an ideal location to kick off the 2024 season. We are grateful to the Las Vegas Raiders and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for their partnership and support.”

The conference officially expands to 16 teams as of Jul. 1, with Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah coming to the conference from the Pac-12. Oklahoma and Texas will officially join the SEC to put them at 16 teams as well.

It is the dawn of a new era, and it is almost poetic that it begins in a different state.

Fans chanted ‘S-E-C’ at Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark during Texas’ trophy presentation

Texas fans really don’t sound too upset with leaving the Big 12.

It doesn’t sound like Texas Longhorns fans are too bent out of shape about leaving the Big 12 for the SEC next year. And they’re not huge fans of Brett Yormark.

As the Big 12 commissioner presented Texas with its conference championship hardware after the team took down Oklahoma State, 49-21, on Saturday, he got loud boos from the fans in the crowd.

Any sort of commissioner of anything is pretty much always going to get booed by the fans, but fans elevated their jeers by audibly chanting “S-E-C!” as Yormark was talking.

It got so bad that Texas coach Steve Sarkisian tried to quiet down his team’s fan base during the presentation.

Talk about adding insult to injury.

Texas going to the SEC will be one of the big stories of the college football season next fall, especially since the Longhorns topped Alabama on the road this past September.

At the very least, we’re guessing there won’t be too many tears shed by Texas fans for the pending Big 12 departure with how they greeted Yormark.

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Big 12 announces additions of Beach Volleyball and Women’s Lacrosse

Two new sports to come to the Big 12 starting in 2024.

On Thursday, the Big 12 and Commissioner Brett Yormark announced two more sports being added to the Big 12.

“Beach volleyball and women’s lacrosse are both experiencing growth and popularity on a national level,” said Commissioner Brett Yormark in a release from the conference. “The additions will allow incoming and current members to compete for national championships under the Big 12 umbrella while expanding the league’s footprint across new sports.”

The additions of the four new schools to the conference starting in 2024 give the Big 12 a chance to broaden its horizons in the realm of college athletics. Along with the TCU Horned Frogs, the beach volleyball teams will include the Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, and Utah Utes.

Per the release, women’s lacrosse will feature Arizona State, Colorado, and Cincinnati.

More details are to come on the additions of beach volleyball and women’s lacrosse. The Big 12 increased their sponsored sports to 25, with women’s sports growing to 15.

it seems that the new commish continues to find new ways to increase the brand of Big 12 athletics for both men’s and women’s sports.

Social media reacts to uncalled pass interference on Drake Stoops in Sooners’ loss to Cowboys

The Big 12 officiating crew failed to call a blatant pass interference in the end zone in Oklahoma’s loss to Oklahoma State and here’s how social media reacted.

It’s easy to overlook officiating when it doesn’t have a direct effect on a potential game-winning drive. But what happened in the end zone as Drake Stoops battled an Oklahoma State defender was an egregious injustice to the game of football.

On the crucial third-and-12 late in the game, Stoops was tackled in the end zone with a Big 12 official right there to witness the play. No flag was thrown. Instead of getting the ball first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, the Sooners were forced to settle for a field goal.

There were numerous plays the Oklahoma Sooners left on the field, and there are always plays that could have gone either way. But with the game on the line and Brett Yormark on hand, the Big 12 officials failed to throw a flag on an obvious pass interference. And it had a direct impact on the outcome.

Instead of getting first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, the Sooners had to attempt a comeback in the final two minutes. Instead of leading with less than two minutes to play, the Sooners were trailing. And the officials were a big reason.

It was an unfortunate ending to a rivalry that dates to 1904. Bedlam deserved better than that.

And here’s how social media reacted to the defensive pass interference no call.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark ‘very impressed’ with Colorado’s approach to athletics

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was recently in Boulder

Ahead of Colorado’s move to the Big 12 next summer, conference commissioner Brett Yormark was in Boulder earlier this month to check out his new university, It’s safe to say he walked away impressed with what he saw, per Brian Howell of BuffZone.

“You know, the brick and mortar part of it plays a huge role,” Yormark told BuffZone. “This place is breathtaking and the investments they’ve made in the student athletes, not just in football, basketball, but all sports, I think is tremendous. So I’ve been very impressed.”

Yormark also mentioned how impressed he is with CU athletic director Rick Geoge:

“What I’ve said to Rick, specifically, is ‘bring us best practices from a conference perspective,” Yormark told BuffZone. “We’ve talked a lot about mental health and nutrition and I look forward to leaning on him for best practices so we as a conference can get better. It’s all positive; very, very positive.”

The Buffs are joining the Big 12 soon while the future of the Pac-12 is still up in the air, although some clarity on that end should come soon. But, so far, Yormark likes what he sees from Colorado.

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Big 12 Commish Brett Yormark: ‘Nothing imminent’ on further expansion

Big 12 commissioner dishes on expansion and future schedule at conference basketball media days.

The Big 12 is already looking at the future of their college basketball product beyond the upcoming season. Beginning in 2024-25 the conference will add Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah while Oklahoma and Texas head off to the SEC.

The idea is that the conference will play a 20-game schedule in men’s basketball and an 18-game schedule in women’s basketball. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yorkmark discussed scheduling for future seasons at media days in Kansas City. According to the commish, “scheduling and travel are a major priority for the conference.”

The Big 12 will try to keep competitive balance and rivalries at the forefront when the league expands to 16 teams next season. There has been plenty of chatter about the possibility of adding a 17th team to the mix for all sports outside of football. Gonzaga has been mentioned among the Big 12’s shortlist but Yormark states that “there’s nothing imminent” when it comes to adding the basketball power to an already strong basketball conference.

“I do explore all options that come to me, and if it creates value for membership both short- and long-term, we’re going to explore it even more.” – Yormark

As far as the upcoming season, all 14 teams will begin conference play on Jan. 6. Big 12 play will conclude on Mar. 9 and the conference tournament will top off at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Mar. 12. The same day that the women’s Big 12 tournament will conclude.

Social Media Reacts: OU, Texas only ranked Big 12 teams and fans let Brett Yormark know about it

The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns were the only ranked teams for the Big 12 in both polls this week and fans let Brett Yormark hear about it.

After Kansas State lost to Missouri by a field goal, the Wildcats dropped out of the US LBM Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25. That left only the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns in the polls following Week 3.

The future of the conference has been one of the biggest talking points across the college football landscape, and commissioner Brett Yormark has been vocal about his league’s future without OU and Texas.

As he should be. The commissioner’s No. 1 job is to promote his league. Yormark has done a really good job at revitalizing a brand that looked like a league left for dead in the aftermath of the announcement by Oklahoma and Texas of their pending departures.

At the same time, when you publicly talk about how you’ll be fine without the two blue bloods, you have to know those words will come back at you from college football fans.

And that’s what happened on Sunday after the latest polls were released. Only the Red River Rivals represented the conference, and fans let Yormark have it. Here’s how social media reacted.

WATCH: Steve Sarkisian responds to Brett Yormark’s comments

Steve Sarkisian wasn’t pleased with Brett Yormark’s comments.

In what was a very bizarre statement, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark essentially expressed public support for Texas Tech to beat Texas this season in football. Continue reading “WATCH: Steve Sarkisian responds to Brett Yormark’s comments”

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark openly wants Texas Tech to beat Texas

The message to USC is indirect but clear: Make sure #Pac12 games aren’t decided by one bad call. No love will be given this year.

Something noticeable happened a few days ago in the Big 12 Conference. Commissioner Brett Yormark openly said he hoped Texas Tech football would “take care of business” when it played Texas at the end of the season. Yormark said he would be in Austin for the game.

Yormark ditched the diplomatic approach and made himself the villain for Texas Longhorn fans. The message couldn’t be any clearer: There’s no love for Texas from the Big 12 office on the Longhorns’ way out the door to the SEC in 2024.

Longhorns Wire has more:

“The Big 12 isn’t going to do the Texas Longhorns any favors in 2023. We could have figured as much. Nevertheless, we didn’t expect to hear what seemed like favoritism from Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. We will let you decide if that’s what we got on Wednesday.

“Yormark made strong comments in support of the Red Raiders in a recent speech to Texas Tech faithful.”

No pretense. Yormark is making it plain.

What does any of this have to do with USC? Nothing is being explicitly said, but we can all put two and two together: The Trojans aren’t going to get a whole lot of love from the Pac-12 this year. Even last year, they were jobbed on a terrible roughing-the-passer call against Utah in October which significantly affected the outcome of that game.

If the Trojans want to make the College Football Playoff, they might need to lead games by 10 points in the fourth quarter, so that if one bad call happens, they will still win by three. If they lead by four points in the fourth quarter and one bad call happens, they could lose on a late touchdown.

Here’s more on the Yormark story and the Big 12’s disavowal of neutrality. This ain’t Switzerland, folks:

Could Joey McGuire’s trash talk backfire against Texas?

Joey McGuire is getting a little too comfortable talking about Texas and Oklahoma.

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire is talking with plenty of bravado. For a coach who went 7-5 last season with his fair share of two-score losses, the math isn’t adding up.

McGuire’s latest remark questions whether or not Oklahoma and Texas are really blue bloods. He referred to the two teams in the following way to a Texas Tech dominant crowd.

“These so-called bluebloods — and I really question that. One of them’s really good in Olympic sports.”

That Texas team is 16-4 in its last 20 meetings against Texas Tech. It’s the same Texas that is in the top five nationally in all-time wins. It’s the very program that has four more national titles and 32 conference championships to Tech’s 11 conference titles. It’s the Texas that is 54-18 all-time against the west Texas program.

Not long ago, Texas Tech pulled on the heartstrings trying to keep the Longhorns in the same conference. Their reasoning: The Lubbock economy would take a hit. They may have to enjoy the final game of the rivalry taking place in Austin this season.

McGuire is putting a Texas-sized target on his back. The Longhorns will look to respond on Black Friday on Nov. 24.