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Jul. 9—Losing his conference’s two biggest brands hasn’t done much to diminish Brett Yormark’s conviction in the strength of the Big 12.
The opening speaker of Big 12 Football Media Days in Las Vegas on Tuesday, the third-year commissioner proclaimed that the Big 12, now with 16 teams, is as strong as ever.
“This is our first media day as a 16-team league, ” Yormark said on stage inside Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. “There has never been a better time than right now to be part of the Big 12.”
The league lost top brands Oklahoma and Texas, also its only previous national champions, to the SEC this offseason, but Yormark believes the addition of the Four Corners schools—Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah—more than makes up the difference.
“We are truly a national conference in 10 states and four time zones, ” he said. “All eyes are now on the Big 12 for all the right reasons. I think it’s safe to say we’re more relevant now than ever before.”
Yormark poached the four newcomers from the dying Pac-12 conference, which will operate as a two-team league with just Washington State and Oregon State in 2024, in order to compete with the Big 10, which added USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, and the SEC, which added the Sooners and Longhorns.
“We added the Four Corners and solidified ourselves as one of the top three conferences in America, ” Yormark said. “I’m incredibly excited about what they bring to our league.”
Yormark touted the newcomers’ success in revenue sports—football and basketball—as big positives for the Big 12.
“The Four Corners was the ‘A’ scenario for us when we thought about realignment, ” Yormark said. “Big brands, great markets, engaged fanbases and both academic excellence and athletic excellence. We got deeper and better in football, we got deeper and better in…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/yormark-touts-realigned-big-12-035900569.html
Author : The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Publish date : 2024-07-10 03:59:00
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