Baylor president Linda Livingstone, vice chair of the Big 12’s board of directors, said she called Yormark the following day: “Well, welcome to college athletics, and you thought working for Jay-Z was really exciting.” “Those are the things I’ll be working on.”Īnother item at the top of the to-do list: Does the Big 12 look to be aggressive in expansion?Ī day after Yormark’s hiring, USC and UCLA dropped the latest realignment bombshell, announcing their move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. “There’s an opportunity to nationalize this brand, to be more aspirational, to appeal to youth culture, to get younger and hipper,” Yormark said. It was exactly the out-of-the-box hire the Big 12 hopes can expand its brand as college athletics enters the super-conference era. Yormark, 55, was named Big 12 commissioner on June 29 following 14 years as the CEO of BSE Global, the management arm of the Nets’ Barclays Center and the past two years as an entertainment executive at Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. “Just as I pledged to the (Big 12) board, we will be bold and humble, aggressive and thoughtful, 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.” “We will leave no stone unturned to drive value for the conference,” said Yormark, who officially begins his new position on Aug. In his first public comments Wednesday, Yormark declared the Big 12 “open for business” as he was peppered with questions ranging from whether the Big 12 is actively courting other schools (“we are exploring all options”), if Texas and Oklahoma may leave early for the Southeastern Conference (“I always look for a win-win scenario”), name image, likeness (“I’m an advocate”), College Football Playoff expansion and negotiations on the Big 12’s next media rights deal. And there’s still a chance of more changes on the way. With the addition of four new schools, the Big 12’s footprint will eventually stretch 1,181 miles to the west (BYU), nearly 1,100 miles east (West Virginia and UCF) and span three different time zones. “A year out seems like it’s far away but it’s not.”ĪLSO SEE: Our seven-part series on UH's move to the Big 12 “He’s new to everybody … we’ll take every chance to be around him and conference staff that we can get,” Pezman said. It’s one of the shorter trips: 252 miles from the Big 12’s Irving offices to UH’s front door. That includes a stop on Cullen Boulevard to meet with Chris Pezman, UH’s vice president for athletics, president Renu Khator and other UH officials as the school - along with BYU, Cincinnati and the University of Central Florida - prepares to officially join the Big 12 on July 1, 2023.
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