Big 12 Conference commissioner Brett Yormark opened the Monster Energy Big 12 Media Days discussing the state of the conference for 15 minutes, including the announcement the Monster Energy would be the entitlement partner for Big 12 Football and Basketball regular seasons.
Below is a snippet of the Q&A portion of Commissioner Yormak’s presser.
Q. How important is it for Big 12 schools to continue playing out-of-conference rivalry games in football, and does that change if you go to a ten-game schedule?
BRETT YORMARK: I think out-of-conference games are critically important. You know, Scott Draper and I discuss that all the time, and we’ll continue to discuss that on a go-forward basis…as it relates to ten conference games, it’s something I brought up at the spring business meetings, and that will be predicated on where we end up or not in the College Football Playoff expansion. All those variables are interconnected, if you will, and we’ll address them when we need to. But out-of-conference games are critically important.
Q. Back in May the Big 12 became the first Power 4 school to have all of its members sign a participation agreement, and we know that’s coming with battling NIL, you know, salary cap, revenue sharing. Can you expand on how that’s going along up until this point?
BRETT YORMARK: Well, listen, we did sign the participation agreement. I think signing that participation agreement shows that all of our schools share the same vision and mission for the go-forward, and we want rules, and we want rules enforced. That’s the message behind signing the participation agreement.
On some of the adjustments that are being made at the College Sports Commission, I’m not at liberty to discuss those right now, but as I said earlier in my comments, the CSC is a startup. Like any startup, you’re going to have challenges, and then you have to address those challenges. I think we’ve been very fluid throughout the last six months in addressing some of those challenges.
Q. Just curious if throughout the Brendan Sorsby situation, if you supported Texas Tech at any point throughout that, and if that changed, what may have caused you to change your mind on that.
BRETT YORMARK: Let me start off by saying I appreciate the question. I appreciate other questions that are probably going to come forth today. Today is not the time to address that issue. Today is about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools, but I appreciate the question, so thank you.
Q. As private equity becomes more and more prominent in the sport, a lot of universities still depend on alumni bases, fundraisers, stuff like that. Some see private equity as controversial, albeit some necessary. How do you see the future of private equity breaking in specifically into the Big 12, and what is that going to look like?
BRETT YORMARK: Well, that’s a great question, but you might not have been reading what has been gone on in the Big 12. So we were at the forefront of private equity when I first got here. We explored all different options, from private equity to debt, you name it.
Each conference, each school, has to do what’s in their best interest. We landed in a place that I felt was a great partnership with RedBird. It’s all about business development. It’s not about traditional private equity. We like where we’ve landed. We think we’re in a really good place. We have a strategic partnership with RedBird. It’s all about growing the conference and taking advantage of their ecosystem.
But I can’t speak to where private equity lands in college athletics because every situation is different, whether it be at a conference level or at a school level.
