The Big 12 FINALLY Looks to the Future With Brett Yormark
The Big 12 has been a mess for nearly a decade. When original members started bailing and the conference decided to add TCU and West Virginia and then stop expansion, it was destined to fail.
The conference was looked at as the smallest and weakest conference by most of the country with only Oklahoma doing anything on a national scale in the biggest sport of Football in the College Football Playoff Era.
Then, in July of 2021, Oklahoma announced that they were taking Texas and heading to the SEC.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was baffled and caught with his pants down as the two most powerful members planned their exit. His first move was to single out ESPN, the conference's largest television and streaming partner, as a swindler that was in cahoots with the SEC.
That was a terrible look. Fast forward to March of 2022 and it was announced that Bob Bowlsby would be "stepping down". Nothing else really came out until on Tuesday when it was leaked that the new commissioner would be Roc Nation executive Brett Yormark.
Yormark has been involved in Nascar, the Barclays Center, The Brooklyn Nets, and more in his storied career as a sports marketing executive.
If a decade under Bowlsby was a plodding reactionary Eeyore type of existence, The Yormark Era should be the opposite. The hire was summed up perfectly by Texas Tech President Dr. Lawrence Schovanek.
“In Brett Yormark, we have chosen a highly adaptable leader who thrives in dynamic times. The landscape of college athletics is evolving to look more like the world Brett has been leading,” said Lawrence Schovanec, President of Texas Tech University and Chair of the Big 12 Conference Board of Directors in a Big 12 Press Release. “He’s authentic and genuine in the way he builds relationships and partnerships, and he works relentlessly to deliver impact. As Brett immerses himself in college sports and connects with all our stakeholders, he will bring a fresh approach and dynamic energy to the Big 12 as we engage a new generation of student-athletes and fans.”
Adaptable is not a word I would ever use for Bob Bowlsby. Yormark will need to rip the Big 12 out of the past to put it on the cutting edge of college athletics. Something I believe he can do.