Can the Big 12 be cool? New commissioner Brett Yormark is working on it. | Opinion

Show Caption

IRVING, Texas — Brett Yormark walks into a conference room in Big 12 headquarters, not so many hours after a 4 a.m. wake-up call and 6 a.m. flight from New York City. 

He’s a man on the move. 

Yormark is a dead ringer for actor David Hyde Pierce, the wondrous Dr. Niles Crane of “Frasier” fame, only without the neurosis. Yormark is hard-working, hard-charging, confident-talking. 

Who knows what will happen to this on-the-rebound league? But for now, Yormark has everyone’s attention. The television networks. Big 12 administrators. Other conference commissioners. 

“They know I’m aggressive, and they know we’re pushing forward,” Yormark said of his Power Five Conference peers. “They know it.” 

The early returns on Yormark’s first three months have been strong. Rekindled interest by ESPN and Fox to open television contract negotiations. A restructured conference office that includes major marketing initiatives. A product on the football field that shows great promise even after Oklahoma and Texas depart for the Southeastern Conference. 

“I’ve been very impressed,” Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg said. “He is a likable guy. He has worked hard at it. He’s bold, aggressive, very innovative. I think he’s bringing a lot of new ideas to our conference that maybe we haven’t thought about before.” 

Media blitz

New York City mayor Eric Adams recently cracked that, “Kansas doesn’t have a brand.” 

But Yormark points out that Kansas certainly had a brand on Oct. 8, with the Jayhawks hosting "College GameDay" on Campanile Hill, resulting in the highest ratings of the season for ESPN’s pregame show. 

College football was all about Kansas that day — Kansas! — and just in case New York eyes and ears didn’t make it to ESPN, Yormark took the Big 12 to New York. A few days later, Yormark led a Big 12 delegation, including basketball coaches Scott Drew of Baylor and Bob Huggins of West Virginia, on a Gotham City blitz of both traditional and non-traditional media. 

“We’re going to story-tell,” Yormark said. “We’re going to find ourselves in places we haven’t been before.” 

Like the entertainment industry. Like the national consciousness. Like on the minds of American young people. 

Yormark devised his own mission when interviewing for the job in the summer: Make the Big 12 hip. Has anyone ever considered Ames, Manhattan or Stillwater cool? Maybe not, but Yormark is running full-speed into the task. 

“We want to nationalize the brand 100 percent,” Yormark said. “We want to get the Big 12 on the consciousness of everyone.” 

Who is Brett Yormark?

Yormark is a New Jersey native who is as hip as you can be for a 56-year-old. He’s worked the last 10 years in Eric Adams’ Big Apple, as chief executive officer of the Brooklyn Nets and chief operating officer of Jay-Z's Roc Nation. Hard to get more hip than the NBA and Roc Nation. 

Yormark is a salesman, a promoter, a branding fiend. He was NASCAR’s vice president for corporate sponsorships from 1998-2005, when stock-car racing went from regional to national in popularity. Yormark plans to do the same with the Big 12.  

“We’re going to be on our way to make ourselves younger, hipper, cooler,” Yormark said. “Connect with the culture in a different way.” 

Former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby led with wisdom and facts and perspective. A shelter in the time of storm. Bowlsby could testify at a congressional hearing and be the smartest person in the room. 

But Yormark appears to lead with energy and conviction and personality. He’s reorganized the conference office, creating 12 new mostly marketing positions, and is taking the Big 12 to the marketplace, determined to not let outsiders tell the conference story. 

“I just think in general, we’ve been very stagnant as a conference,” Yormark said. “No disrespect to anyone who’s been here, they’ve done a great job, but I think there’s so many places we can go.” 

In July, he famously said at his first news conference that the Big 12 was “open for business,” and in the second straight summer of realignment, the press corps ran with the idea that the Big 12 was seeking to expand by pilfering schools from the staggered Pac-12. 

That’s not exactly what Yormark meant – his working knowledge of college sports was minimal at the time, and he barely understood all the tentacles of conference movement. But Yormark soon embraced the idea of Big 12 expansion with some combination of Washington, Oregon, Utah, Arizona State, Arizona and Colorado. Even said, “out West is where I would like to go.” And he didn’t mean Fresno State and Wyoming. 

“I was very comfortable with that narrative, that we’re going to be aggressive and thoughtful,” Yormark said. “We’re not going to do something for the sake of doing it, but if it means value creation, a way for us to get to a place we’re not today, we’re going to explore it. We have to. That’s my job. And I’m not going to apologize for it.” 

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey worked with Bowlsby for more than a year on a four-man committee that developed a College Football Playoff plan, all the while scheming to take OU and Texas from the Big 12. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren formed an alliance with the Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference, then took Southern California and UCLA from the Pac. 

Yormark has participated in no such subterfuge. He’s walked through the door, declaring his intentions. Doesn’t really matter whether other commissioners are taken aback by Yormark’s bravado or charmed by his honesty. He’s on a mission. 

“I don’t mind telegraphing what I’m about to do,” Yormark said. “I want to be transparent about it. I said we’re open for business.” 

The Big 12’s negotiations with ESPN and Fox are an example. Those networks declined an opportunity for such talks 18 months ago, prompting OU and Texas to reach out to the SEC. 

Without the Sooners and Longhorns, some feared the Big 12’s television value could be sliced in half. Now, Big 12 athletic directors have grown confident the new media contracts are expected to increase from where they were. That would be a rousing victory for the conference. 

“I think the narrative’s starting to change,” Yormark said. “People are starting to think, ‘What’s going on over there?’ ” 

How does he view Big 12 schools?

Yormark remains a little naïve about college sports. He’s just getting to know the conference, though he’s already made mid-week visits to every campus and hit a bunch of football games. 

“I’m really energized by it,” Yormark said. “Because in some of these communities, that’s the only game in town. And I love that. Because everyone’s rallying around it. Every age bracket, demo, doesn’t matter. It’s like everyone comes together. And the passion’s great, the commitment. The support. 

“When I went to Texas-Texas Tech, it was like a Super Bowl environment. It was unbelievable. The activations on the outside of the stadium, the traffic getting in. Reminded me of nothing different than a Giants or Jets on a Sunday. And I was seeing that at every campus.” 

Yep, Mr. Commissioner, Texans love their football. 

And Yormark is blessed by timing – Big 12 football has stepped into an incredible run of parity. OU’s domination is gone. OSU and Baylor made the Big 12 championship game last season, and TCU and Kansas State seem intent on doing the same this year. 

But aside from the football, Yormark wants to change the perception of the conference in a broader sense. Legendary songwriter Mac Davis once penned that “Happiness is Lubbock, Texas, in the rearview mirror.” Yormark has signed on to change that script about the likes of Lubbock and Waco and Morgantown. 

He plans to use music and social media and branding to appeal to the younger generation. Yormark said when he visited with athletes on campuses, he found none who signed on because of the Big 12.  

“It was all about the school, which is great,” he said. “But I want to change that paradigm. I want them to think about our conference first, in some respects, where they like everything we’re doing. 

“We’re winning in music, we’re winning in culture, we’re winning in lifestyle. We’re winning in all the areas that really matter, when you think about the long game. And once they vote yes for the conference, they say, ‘I gotta be a part of that. Love everything they're doing, the feel, the flavor, the direction.’ 

“Then we give them 12 great choices to choose from.” 

Now that’s bold, by Big 12 standards. The SEC has been a branding success, which has led to many recruits deciding on the conference, then picking a school. Most of those decisions are football-based. Yormark seems intent on doing the same, only beyond the gridiron. 

But he says it’s really just a different way of selling the Big 12. 

“How do we amplify everything these schools are doing and capture it at the conference level, so we can get on the consciousness of these future student-athletes?” Yormark said. 

“Aspirationally, that’s what I want. I want to be destinational for these student-athletes, then we’ll figure out the tactics that we use. Music is going to be one of them. It’s the language that really connects everyone. We’re going to use it.” 

Big 12 adding some swagger

Yormark has big plans for Big 12 basketball tournament. Expect to see high-profile concerts and performances incorporated into tent-pole events like the Big 12 championship game and the Big 12 basketball tournament. 

He is formalizing a new conference creative agency that will work with Dallas-based marketing firm LDWW. He’s hired Tyrell Kirkham, the Detroit Pistons’ vice president of brand and marketing strategy, as the Big 12’s first chief marketing officer. Complex, a New York media and entertainment company centering on youth culture, style, sneakers, food, music and sports, is profiling the Big 12 for its magazine. 

The Big 12 you’ve seen all these years is about to look much different, and I don’t mean because BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and Central Florida are coming on board. 

“You’re going to see our story told in different places,” Yormark said. “But I’m very bullish on where we’re going. Because some of our key stakeholders are voting yes for us. I feel pretty good about it.

“People want change."

Berry Tramel can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com.