Brett Yormark took over a league with a self-worth problem. A bunch of schools were not communicating, not trusting anyone, and looking out only for themselves.
In 10 months on the job, Yormark is responsible for the most extreme makeover in sports history.
Immediately, Yormark started dealing from a position of strength. He’s pushing the action instead of reacting to other leagues’ moves. He’s setting the terms and strategically leaking what he wants to get out. He’s courting potential members, some real and some smoke screens, to encourage his targets to get moving or potentially miss out.
Yormark has gone after the four-corner schools (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah) from the Pac-12 and Gonzaga and UConn outside the P5. As the Oklahoman’s Barry Trammel suggests, Arizona and Colorado seem more interested than ASU and Utah while few in the B12 want the Bulldogs and Huskies.
Yormark is correct that basketball is undervalued in TV contracts, and schools like Gonzaga and UConn bring more value than TV networks assign them. Still, among the Big 12 membership, there’s little appetite for Gonzaga and possibly even less for UConn. Sure, UConn won the national title in basketball, and they’re an annual power in women’s hoops. But their football product is horrible; they play over 50% of their big three sports in Hartford, 25 miles from campus. With so many games away from campus, why does UConn have an athletics deficit of $133,000,000 over the last three years? If the Big 12 adds UConn and a new governor or school president comes along and gets spooked by the numbers, do they devalue football again?
And no Big 12 school wants to fly to Spokane or Storrs for a league game. Spokane to Orlando or Morgantown and Storrs to Provo and Lubbock are long hauls, especially when schools have to send volleyball, soccer, and tennis teams there on commercial flights.
But the biggest issue is that ESPN and Fox will not pay enough for Gonzaga or UConn to justify the Big 12 adding them. Yormark knows that which is why Gonzaga and UConn are backfill targets. They’re mainly being used to pressure the Pac-12 schools to make their move.
ESPN and Fox will pay for P5 schools, so Arizona and Colorado are appealing for the brand Yormark wants to build. The Wildcats and Buffs bring new markets; with those two and BYU, the league will add three new western markets in a new time zone. In truth, adding Zona and CU would make Arizona State and Utah redundant. The B12 does not need either of those, but weakening the Pac-12 does help the Big 12 long-term.
It wasn’t long ago that the Pac-12’s media boys were saying the last rites for the Big 12. Remember when the Pac-12 scoffed at adding Big 12 members, saying they’d dilute their TV contracts?
The Big 12 now has a sturdy membership and an increasingly positive outlook, while the Pac-12 is in line at the AppleTV+ soup kitchen. The current landscape is like the end of Trading Places: the Pac-12 is Mortimer and Randolph Duke, and the Big 12 is Billy Ray Valentine and Louis Winthorpe III.
Looking good, Billy Ray!
