From a public relations standpoint, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark might as well have dropped the mic on Thursday in a statement announcing Colorado’s return to the conference it called home for 62 years.

There is no greater winner in this round of deck shuffling than the new Big 12 commissioner, who has been on the job for less than a year.

And, of course, anyone who follows the Pac-12 knows the biggest loser in this debacle, even if George Kliavkoff is taking too much of the blame.

Those are just two of the many, many people impacted by yet another landmark move in college sports.

Here’s a look at the winners and losers of the Buffaloes’ bounce back to the Big 12…

Winner: Brett Yormark

At just about every step of his blessed career, Yormark has delivered. So perhaps we should not be surprised that the former CEO of Jay-Z’s Roc Nati0n and former CEO of Brooklyn Sports Entertainment struck a fated blow to the gut of the Pac-12. Former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren struck right to the conference’s heart by poaching USC and UCLA last year, but Colorado is more a spleen or a kidney. To be sure, in the Pac-12 pecking order, the Buffaloes rank at or near the bottom — since they originally bolted from the Big 12 in 2011, the Buffaloes sport a 26.2 percent conference winning percentage — but seizing the opportunity to gain the edge in optics offsets any lack of competitiveness that Colorado might offer.

Throughout this entire dalliance, Yormark read the tea leaves with perfection.

Loser: George Kliavkoff

Yormark’s success is almost perfectly juxtaposed by Kliavkoff’s ineptitude. Of course, not all of this falls on his shoulders, but a series of public gaffes and an overstated sense of confidence has left Kliavkoff looking terrible through this ordeal. Kliavkoff, the former president of entertainment and sports for MGM Resorts International before joining the Pac-12 in 2021, knows Las Vegas through-and-through, so he’s very familiar with bad hands, and that’s what he was dealt by the league’s ineffective previous regime.

But his handling of this situation has been an abomination. He should have recognized his power and forced expansion months ago, starting with San Diego State and SMU. It’s a joke the Pac-9 is in this position, and it ultimately falls on his shoulders.

Winner: Rick George and Phil DiStefano

The Colorado athletic director and chancellor already pulled off one of the amazing stories in college football by hiring Deion Sanders this offseason (more on that later), but now securing the bag for the Buffaloes — even if it’s not a completely overwhelming bag — could prove to be a stroke of genius. You’d always rather be a little early to act than a little late.

The return to a familiar home, combined with a renewed investment in football, should pay off for Colorado. Don’t forget — the Buffaloes spent more than 6 decades in the then-Big 8/12.

Loser: San Diego State

Oh, Aztecs. You were so close. The Pac-12’s dithering has made a major impact on SDSU, which now flails in the wind likely until at least 2025. Had Kliavkoff and the conference decision-makers acted sooner, it could have brought in one of the ascendant departments in college athletics and rekindled a relationship with Southern California.

Instead, SDSU faces a reported $34 million exit fee if it tries to join the Pac-12 by 2024. Not likely.

Loser: Pac-12 presidents

You’ve got to wonder what the leaders of the 9 remaining Pac-12 teams are thinking right now, with the walls crumbling around them. I picture a bunch of old men in top hats and monocles and women with long cigarettes and primped hair commiserating over martinis and high test scores. Sure, Stanford is in a better position than Iowa State.

But the Cyclones feel a lot more stable right now.

Winner: Coach Prime

Deion Sanders was reportedly gung-ho about a move to the Big 12, which is not so imposing as the SEC or Big Ten but is more serious about football. I’d rather have to go through Oklahoma State and TCU than Oregon and Washington. From a perception standpoint, this also plays well for Prime. After making a quick splash in the Pac-12 this year, he could go into 2024 carrying a big stick.

Winner: Jim Mora

Just a few years ago, Mora was on the college football coaching trash heap, after his relatively successful run at UCLA concluded and he gave way to Chip Kelly. Mora languished for almost a half-decade before joining lowly UConn, which remains an independent FBS program. He took over the Huskies in 2022 and promptly led them to their first bowl appearance since 2015.

Now Connecticut is a potential expansion target of the Big 12, as Yormark reportedly sees plenty of potential in building a dominant college basketball conference to go along with a second-tier football conference. What a turnaround that would be for Mora.

Loser: 1 or 2 Four Corner schools

If the Big 12 does, in fact, decide to go east, that could sideline a potential partner out west. The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported that the Big 12 would like to add anywhere from 1 to 3 more schools, preferably from the Pac-12. If either a Pacific Northwest school shows interest or the Huskies are a preferred choice, either Arizona, Arizona State or Utah might be in trouble.

Winner: Pac-12 skeptics

One of the fascinating subplots here has been the war-of-words between sources and media members who’ve hitched their wagons to one of two agendas — the  Pac-12 (or 10) staying whole or the league fracturing.

Some reputations were harmed in this process.

Loser: Tad Boyle

If you’re Boyle and the Buffaloes men’s basketball team, you’d much rather have to tangle with the likes of Cal and Stanford than Kansas and Baylor. Put it this way: The Big 12’s conference RPI ranking in 2022-23? No. 1. The Pac-12’s? No. 8. That marked the third straight season that the Big 12 was the best conference in basketball, no small feat.

Colorado has plenty of optimism heading into this season, but it had better act fast before it goes back to tangling with the big boys.

Oh, and by the way. Just imagine if Arizona joins the Jayhawks in a super conference. Scary.

Loser: Washington State and Oregon State

All indications are that Oregon and Washington will be fine, and Stanford and Cal make for a compelling pair for an even bolder Big Ten vision. The Four Corner schools appear to be in pretty good shape long term.

So who does that leave?

Here’s looking at you, Pullman and Corvallis. Two of the league’s most isolated outposts have to be worried for their futures.

Winner: USC and UCLA

The decision of the two coveted Los Angeles schools to jump ship and kickstart yet another massive tidal wave of realignment looks smarter and smarter in hindsight. It’s not just about a better financial forecast for both teams. What now feels inevitable wasn’t so back in the innocent days of May 2022.

The world of college athletics has shifted, in no small part thanks to the keen maneuvering by Hollywood’s finest.