Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark gets to take a victory lap after pulling Colorado from the Pac-12 and further destabilizing the conference.

At last year’s Pac-12 Media Day, league commissioner George Kliavkoff took shots at Yormark and the Big 12, accusing the conference of trying to poach members after the announced departures of USC and UCLA. For a year since, Kliavkoff has maintained that no one else was leaving the conference while Yormark kept his finger on the pulse of this latest round of conference realignment.

Last Friday, Kliavkoff told reporters that further defections from the Pac-12 were “not a concern.”

On Thursday, Colorado’s Board of Regents officially decided to leave.

Immediately following the passing of that resolution, the Big 12 released a one-line statement from Yormark.

“They’re back.”

Yormark channeled his inner Michael Jordan for that one.

Among the reasons listed for the conference switch, Colorado Chancellor Phil DiStefano said Thursday that the Big 12’s “stability in an era of change” was a major factor. Colorado is the third school to announce plans to leave the Pac-12. USC and UCLA will move to the Big Ten in 2024.

The Buffaloes left the Big 12 following the 2010 season. They failed to produce a winning record in any of their final five seasons in the league. In 11 full seasons with the Pac-12 thus far, CU has enjoyed just a single season with a winning record. (Colorado went 4-2 in 2020.) They’ve won more than three conference games in a season just one time.