Big 12 commissioner updates conference plans after Pac-12 additions
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark met with local reporters who cover the Pac-12’s so-called “Four Corner” schools on Tuesday and said fairly plainly the league is done.
“Right now we’re done,” Yormark said, according to The Arizona Republic’s Michelle Gardner. “We had a vision. We had a strategy and effectively we’ve been able to execute it. Initially, I wasn’t sure if we’d go to 14 or 16. I think 16 was kind of a dream scenario, candidly. So from our perspective, our focus now is to integrate the four incoming schools as quickly as we can. Get them comfortable. We feel really good about our future and what our membership composition looks like when you look at it in terms of where we were and where we are and where we’re going.”
Yormark said, per Gardner, he held independent conversations with each of the four schools, but they all had “an appetite” to play things out on the Pac-12 front.
Colorado was the first of the four departing schools to reach some finality on the decision. When it became clear the Pac-12 was falling apart, Arizona State and Utah followed the Arizona Wildcats in making the move to the Big 12.
Yormark called all four schools “historic” programs and “leaders” both in the classroom and on the playing field.
“The great thing about the four incoming schools is there’s great alignment on where we want to go. There’s like-mindedness which I think is critically important,” he said, per Gardner. “There’s a good culture fit. Those things were very critical for us as we were thinking about expansion. So everything is positive.”
Yormark also said the league is still trying to determine how the new additions will change the conference’s structure from a divisional standpoint. The Arizona Republic report makes mention of the 16 schools possibly being divided into pods of four or being separated into eight-team divisions.
Yormark did say, though, that the league will stick with nine conference football games.
You can read more about his comments on scheduling here.