Could more Pac-12 schools leave the conference?
In an interview on Canzano & Wilner The Podcast, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was very transparent about his goal to add more members to the conference.
With Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC in 2024 and BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston joining the Big 12 in 2023, the conference will be at 12 schools after playing with 14 next year.
Expect the Big 12 to add more schools in the future though.
“When I think about expansion, I think about it in a couple of ways,” Yormark said. “I think about performance, cultural fit and I also look at time zone and geography. We go through this modeling, is it the right fit for us? I continue to think about expansion for all of the right reasons and what’s going to be additive for our conference in every way possible.”
Yormark was asked point blank if the conference was targeting Pac-12 schools to bring in. He said that he’s not “targeting anyone specifically,” but he does want to get into the Pacific Time Zone.
“I’ve been pretty transparent and intentional that we’d like that fourth time zone to create more value for our media partners,” he said. “We’re entering a third time zone with our expansion that becomes official in July…But would I like to be a national conference in all of the different time zones and from a geography standpoint, have our Big 12 flag all over the country? 100 percent. We’ll see where it ends up. Obviously it’s a fluid process. There’s a lot at stake out there. But it is certainly something I think about daily and it’s been part of my vision since I’ve been here and I’ve been very public about it.”
Yormark wants the Big 12 to expand west and the Pac-12 is currently struggling to get a new media rights deal done after the Big 12 signed a $2.28 billion deal with Fox and ESPN last October. While Yormark says he’s not targeting any school in particular, would anyone be surprised if the Big 12 added multiple Pac 12 schools in the future based on those two facts?
In a story published last week on conference realignment, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd wrote:
“If the Pac-12 continues to take its time or struggles to come to an agreement, the unspoken stance held by the Big 12 — at least publicly — is that some of those West Coast schools might get nervous about the league’s security and stability. There is now a former Midwest-based conference ready to take them in.”
Yormark’s interview on Canzano & Wilner The Podcast didn’t exactly dispel the notion that a few Pac-12 teams might jump ship.
