The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - BIG 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark Joins the Show

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

BIG 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark Joins the Show 

I'm here in Chicago, living for Minneapolis to get the rockets and wolves going tomorrow night from the Twin Cities. Ross back in Houston, we are very happy to have our next guest on a first-time visitor to the show, and hopefully many, many times because I found it to be very fascinating, an out-of-the-box kind of commissioner, and he's representing our conference and our school, Brett Yormark, Big 12 commissioner here in the Matt Thomas Show of Ross. Mr. Yormark, it's Matt and Ross. Thank you for joining us. there's selfishly there's too much hold on hold on you got to make this less formal you got to call me

brett okay for starters good and i got to ask you why haven't i ever been invited to join you guys before uh your media crew no i'm just kidding just easy no you got let me tell you something and this is honest and you and i've never met face-to-face but i want to and i want to ask you like 900 questions but i'm getting you for 10 minutes here so uh but i want to do this You can ask me anything you want, but I look forward to meeting you in person. Yeah, you know, we'll do. We'll come to Big 12 Media Day, but I want you to come sit with me and do like a half an hour show because there's like five million things I want to ask you.

So in no particular order. I would love to do that, by the way. Good. We will make that happen. First of all, what has it been like? You are an out-of-the-box commissioner, to say the very least. Is that always been your DNA? Or did you say when I took the job, I got to do things a little outside of,

of coloring the inside the lines? Well, it's a great question, and I will say that historically, wherever I've been and I'll date myself a little bit, you know, I was the CEO of the Brooklyn Nets for 16 years, I spent significant amount of time at NASCAR. It's safe to say that I've been a bit of a change agent. And in order to be a change agent, you've got to have the fortitude to look to break boundaries thoughtfully

to innovate and take calculated, risk. And I think I've done a little bit of that here. When I took this job at the Big 12, from afar I saw a conference that had great bones, but it truly needed to be reimagined and repositioned. And thankfully, I worked for a great group of ADs and a wonderful board that has given me the latitude, along with my colleagues here at the Big 12 conference office, to innovate and to do things differently. And thankfully, I think it's all paid off. I mean, listen, you don't bet a thousand,

but so far our record speaks for itself. I love the trajectory of this conference. I love how we're positioned. I love our profile. And I think it only gets better. You are clearly an advocate for everything in our schools, now only here in Houston, but around the league. The basketball side of thing has been absolutely amazing.

Football was certainly very intriguing this year. state of affairs overall when you meet with your fellow conference commissioners does it happen a lot do you have chats do you have group text tell me how aligned you are with the other commissioners and will that remain the same or are you always keeping an eye just to make sure everybody is behaving themselves and and for the greater interest of college athletics it's another great question so i engage quite a bit with my commissioner college college And when I speak about my commissioner colleagues, although I love all the commissioners, specifically I'm referencing the power for commissioners. We speak often. We meet pretty often as well. And I engage individually with them quite a bit, you know, throughout the week. I think there is alignment across the board on what we want for the system of collegiate athletics. We obviously are in a period of change, and we have to manage to that change, and we're spending a lot of time together in order to do that. Is it fair to say that there are times where we agree to disagree? Certainly.

But I think everyone has a strong desire to try to get this thing right and to do what's right for not only our specific conferences, but for the system of collegiate athletics. And that's what we work towards every day. And there's a lot of moving parts, as you know, and we're trying to make some significant progress. And I think we are, and I think there's more to come. All right, we're in basketball mode, so I'm going to go to basketball NCAA expansion of the tournament.

Your initial thoughts about that? I've been pretty consistent. I do like expansion. I think a conference like ours, you know, given recent realignment, needs access. So, you know, if you think about where we are today, 68, going to 76, and that's just a working number. Obviously, there's been other numbers out there. I like that. And the data and the analytics show that, you know, the beneficiaries of that type of expansion would primarily be the powerful.

four conferences. So I feel good about it. Now, having said that, the economics need to be right when you think about expansion. No one wants any delusion. And if we expand for the men, we have to do the same for the women. So there's moving parts here, but I'm confident I think we can get there. And I'm hopeful that in the next couple of months, you know, the NCAA will be able to make an announcement that's positive and that we can all rally around. How are you balancing your time? Are you going to be jessing around? We've got a lot of big 12 representation still in this tournament. Well, I move around a lot. This past weekend, I started in Oklahoma City. I saw Houston.

I then went to San Diego. I saw Arizona and Kansas. I then hopped over to L.A. to see Oklahoma State in the Women's NCAA Tournament. Then I flew with a. home and I was at TCU to see the women's play at home their second round game. So I'm a big supporter of both men's and women's. I've become very fond of the women's game, candidly. And we divide and conquer here at the conference. So our goal is to support all of our schools. And a couple of us are on the road. And I'll get back on the road to see Houston and in Iowa State this week, and my colleague who runs men's basketball, Brian Thornton, will head out to San Jose to support Arizona.

So we're excited about this coming weekend, and, you know, our goal is to be obviously well represented in Indianapolis. Can I give out your cell number because my Cougar alum's continue to text me about looking for tickets? Do you have any available for the general public right now that you're not going to set a line? They can reach out to you. Well, listen, don't get my number. Don't get my number out.

I've got enough people that text and call me. I will say that, you know, it's interesting. I'm very excited, you know, for the fans in Houston. They've been great. I've gotten to know them quite a bit. Obviously, followed Houston last year to the final four. We came up a little short, but, you know, a great part of my experience was getting to know many of the fans. Last year.

I remember when I was in Indy and Houston had to. play Tennessee and Purdue. That was a home game for those guys. And I remember chatting with Kelvin saying, boy, I want that for you next year. And thankfully, he's got it. And I just hope that, you know, the school and the fans all rally around the team. They're so well deserving of it. They've been so successful. They've been an elite, you know, player, you know, when you think about college men's college basketball. So I'm hoping the fans really, really support them this weekend at Toyota Center. So hearing that they're having a tough time getting tickets is a good thing for me

because hopefully they bought in advance and there'll be a lot of red in that venue. Absolutely. I've got one more from me and then my partner's got a couple. Let me go to football real quick. I'm going to take your lead on this. I love 16 teams, love 12. Anything beyond that would kind of get. get convoluted and messy and long.

Have you changed your opinion? If you were to walk in with your fellow commissioners and say, here's what we're going to do, what do you want it to be, how much guarantee, and how much, you know, we were talking about the group texting with other commissioners, how much is it changing and how much, frankly, this television play a role into the future of college football playoff expansion? Well, let me tell you from this, and again, I've been pretty consistent. I was a big advocate of, you know, no additional AQs in a 16-team format because I do believe we need more access.

12 isn't enough. There's some great teams that don't get in. Really, really good teams. Having said that, you know, we spend a lot of time, you know, the commissioners, you know, and we did discussing format. And I'm disappointed we couldn't get to 16. I felt that was the right place to land. and we'll continue those conversations, starting with our CFP Spring meetings.

Anything beyond that, I'm open to, but I want to see the data. You know, I want to see what does it mean? You know, what are the unintended consequences? What are the changes that,

that, you know, you have to make in order to accommodate a number bigger than 16? And I don't have the answers for that. And that's the work that needs to be done if we're going to consider anything beyond 16. Big 12, Brett, Yourmark with us here on a Sports Talk 790.

And Brett, I want to bring up one of your favorite topics, I'm sure, NIL. Of course, a lot has been talked about it being kind of like a Wild West situation right now. What do you think as far as possible solutions as far as guardrails and who would implement them in terms of agents getting involved and needing certifications of agents? As far as like changes you think need to be made long term for NIL? Listen, I want to start off by saying, you know, there's good NIL. You know, those are, that's when, you know, obviously a student athlete can leverage their name image and likeness and partner with great brands that help to, you know, build and amplify their profile. And then there's pay for play. And we still have a lot of manufactured NIL right now in the system.

and I could talk for hours about it, but obviously I think the college sports commission is doing a really good job right now. You know, effectively, they're a startup, and they haven't even been in operation for 12 months yet. And, you know, I think they're doing an admirable job. The CEO is totally dedicated to creating, you know, the necessary guardrails in order for us to move forward in a very positive. positive way. But, you know, everything's connected in this industry. You know, when you think about all the things that we're working on, whether it's federal legislation, how to put guardrails around, you know, manufactured NIL, if you will. There's just so much that, you know, we're dealing with right now. And I do believe they're very interconnected, all of them. And as I said earlier, we're working tirelessly, I think, as a commissioner group, but also with our ADs and our our boards to make sure that we get this thing right and that we move in the right direction. And that's what we're committed to. And I know, you know, speaking on behalf of myself, that I'm spending a lot of time listening and understanding everyone's, you know, points of view,

you know, there's lots of different key stakeholders here and trying to move the ball forward in a, in a, in the most appropriate way. And I'm very optimistic we can get there. you know the settlement you know rev share that that just started last july we've learned a lot over the you know the last couple of months and we'll continue to learn more moving forward and we'll make the necessary changes and adjustments that we have to but i'm optimistic we can get this thing right how do you feel about the long-term landscape of donations in terms of a phrase we've used donor fatigue have you seen any of that or maybe it's more on a program program by program basis in terms of this large influx of cash and how long that can sustain.

Guys, listen, I love you both and I don't want to get into all these other subjects right now. We could sit down, invite me for a nice lunch. I don't eat a lot. And we can sit down and talk a lot about this off the air. You know, today's goal really was to talk about how great Houston is, you know, the Big 12 basketball brand in general. role and how we're going to show up this weekend and hopefully in Indy. And I'd like to keep the conversation focused on that right now.

And more than happy to sit down with you and have a really heartfelt conversation on the industry and where we're going. And candidly, we'd love your input. I want the Cougars to win. I don't care about anybody else, honestly. I mean, if it's Arizona, Houston, that would be, I mean, one for the ages. Because let me tell you something, that stretch of games with the Big Monday, with Arizona, Iowa State, Houston.

I had great expectations going into this Big 12, but the conference has even exceeded what I think even the average fan, college fan thought about it. I mean, to have guys like Jay Billis and other respected national folks, Bill Raftery say the Big 12 basketball has been the best this year in the country, that's saying something especially with the great pedigree that can be found most recently in the ACC and the SEC. Well, that's our goal. Our goal has, you know, last year there was a lot of talk around the SEC,

and it was probably, you know, well-deserved. And I know our schools are investing at a high level. And, you know, we over the last 10 years had been the best conference in America. You know, I now, you know, say often if people listen, we're the second best league outside the NBA. And we have performed that way this year, for sure. Our top end is as good as it's ever been here at the Big 12. And, in fact, it's probably better than it's ever been. Our ratings are indicative of how well,

we're playing. I mean, our conference ratings were up over 20% this year. We set an all-time record for that championship game in Casey for our tournament between Houston and Arizona, over 3 million viewers, up 39%. And the numbers that just came out from the NCAA yesterday on the, you know, on last weekend, those ratings were up. So, you know, basketball in general, college basketball is thriving. And we're at the center of it. And, and, and, And candidly, all eyes have been on the Big 12 this year. And for me, this is an important weekend because my expectation is that will show up, obviously, in a profound way, in Indianapolis, and I think I've got what we're going to do before that happens.

But I'm very optimistic. Last question. Do you see college basketball expanding number of games? You know, where they get to 38, 40, is that too much? Are you at the right spot right now? Could you do a game maybe to help out the NIL stuff to, to, to, the lesser extent to maybe making, you know, I know they have these multi-level tournament-type games. Do we see more of that coming in the future for all schools, not necessarily just the Big 12?

You know, it's a great question. You know, we've never talked about the game count in our conference. You know, it's a long season right now. And you ask the coaches, it's a very long season, in fact. And, you know, we have a tough conference schedule. We play 18 games. Last year we played 20. This year is 18.

I think 18 was the right number. So it's a long season already and a very competitive one. So any change in the amount of games is certainly something that I've not heard yet, but I'm open to any discussion if it comes up. I kind of like it where it is, candidly. And I think it's probably a number that's going to probably stay where it is, I think, for the foreseeable future. But again, open to any discussion.

if anyone wants to have it with me. Last question. Real quick on football. I love that the Cougars play Texas Tech and Baylor and TCU. Does the scheduling module on the football side allow that to happen every single year, or is that still very much a work in progress? Well, it's a work in progress. And we are looking at, you know, what the next couple of years will look like moving forward

and spending a lot of time on scheduling between our head of football, Scott Draper and RADs. And, you know, maintaining robberies, I think is critically important, not only for the fans, but also ratings candidly. And, you know, that's certainly something that we're focused on. I do like Houston's schedule next year. I agree with you. And listen, they had a heck of the season.

Post-Fritz has done an incredible job. You know, you never know until you start the season, but it looks like they had a very successful portal and he's building something really special there in Houston so you guys should be very happy about that as well. Save Travels to our city. We thank you for the time. Hope this is not our last visit with us. We want to visit with you down the road on a couple of different things.

No, no. I'm waiting for a lunch invitation. You give me a lunch invitation and come and see you guys, okay? Perfect. Thank you very much, Commissioner. We really appreciate it. Brett, you're on our time. Thank you very much joining us here on the show.

1250 on Sports Talk 790.