The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joseph Duarte From Big 12 Media Days to Share the Latest News And Storylines

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Joseph Duarte From Big 12 Media Days to Share the Latest News And Storylines

Joseph Tortay, Houston Chronicle, in Frisco. Joseph, we just played the conversation between that Lubbock reporter and Brett Yormark. It's been a spicy day for the commissioner of the Big 12, has it not? Oh, man, you know, I wish you could visualize it because the guy didn't get the question, or the bread didn't hear it. The commissioner didn't hear it, right? So he was like, I asked it again, and he sort of pivoted to the other side of the stage, and he was like ton and center with the guy.

and the guy misquoted him with the we are 12 or whatever the line was and he was like this is all i'm going to say about that so yeah it's been kind of spicy uh you know obviously the the one question or the question the topic that was going to come up with the brendan sorsby situation that went on for what seemed like years this off season and i didn't think they handled it real well he said today's not the day for us to talk about that and the question immediately becomes well when is going to be the proper day and for the conference to sort of have a chance that you could have put it to bed. You could have addressed it. You could have said, hey, this is what happened.

This is where we're at. And, you know, kind of left things open. Yeah, this has been an interesting. Yeah, Joseph, this is literally the day you get rid of it. I mean, what are you waiting for Texas Tech Media Day in Lubbock to do that? I mean, they're not going to get. The Lubbock media is not going to go after anybody in the Texas Tech campuses because, let's face it. And this is not uncommon.

90% of college town's media are the fans that went to that school. So they're not going to do a deep dive into this for sure. Not that we need a deep dive, but you're looking for a little more reflection and you're not going to get it from the hometown media in a small college town. Yeah.

I mean, you're right. I mean, this was the time to do it. But we did, you know, we can talk to the monster people for their energy drink sponsorship so we can get all that. Get all that all you want. talk about that all day, but no, the Big 12 had the first fumble of the offseason of the season

by not being able to address this properly and get it out of the way. But, you know, we can move on. There's a lot of other things to talk about. For sure. Namely, your Houston Cougars. Yes. Big expectations. That's kind of been the topic today of where the Cougars can fit in all this this year.

Is it too simplistic to say this? And the answer is going to be yes, but give me a little leeway on this. The winner of the Texas Tech Houston game, we do it. gut feeling segment on the show every Tuesday. How about this? The winner of Texas Tech Houston is going to have one of the two spots in the Big 12 championship game. Is that far-fetched for me to say that? No, I think you're certainly in the driver's seat. And from there, you know, and it's September. Yes, it's late September. You've got, if you're Houston, you still got road trips to West Virginia, Utah, and Colorado, in tough places. But

look at it this way, and this is not too early. No team has made the college football playoff that hasn't been ranked preseason. Houston will be ranked preseason. So you check that box off and you go to Big 12 opener. That's Texas Tech. You win that one. You check that mark box off. So yeah, I think eventually you have to look at it and whether it's too early or not,

it doesn't matter. You've got to take each one of those steps. But I think the winner of that one gets the inside track to one of those spots or, you know, the way things have played out, you could see both of those things. I think those two are certainly two of the top three teams in the league along with, in my opinion, BYU. All right. Back on the football side of it in a second, but you did mention Bonsor Men or Gene that they're not a sponsor, so we don't give them a plug, but they are now going to be all over the field and on the uniforms.

So is, is this the first of a conference affiliation with one particular product? Is that correct? I don't know that. And forgive me for not having kind of researched that before. or it's going to be for the regular season, football and basketball. So that's the partnership. You know, they sort of bill themselves here in the Big 12 as a conference of first. And, you know, they claim, you know, with the private equity and some of the other things.

But, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's just as the way things are going, Matt. I mean, you know, with the sponsorships, they had a really odd one a few years ago with Old Trapper, beef turkey, which, by the way, great beef jerky, but it just kind of did. didn't seem like it fit. And this one's more tailored towards, I think, younger audience, kind of the Big 12 being, you know, they want to be hip. And, you know, old guys like you and me, I don't know how much energy drinks you're doing these days.

Oh, God, no. They're not exactly on my, my morning routine. Yeah. Joseph Tortue from the Houston Chronicle with us from the Big 12 meaty days, which are happening in Frisco. All right. The two hottest seats in the Big 12 that we actually sort of care about, would they be fair to say it's Dionne Sanders and Dave

Oranda, yes or no? Oranda, for sure. I mean, his is scorching, and I think he would be gone right now if the athletic director situation didn't play out the way that he did and the timing of it.

The only thing, yes and no, I mean, I guess one is you look at his contract, and nowadays, do those even really matter in terms of what they pay? but it's certainly been a going in the wrong direction for Colorado since he kind of on the scene. You look at the rest of the conference, a lot of new coaches, a lot of coaches that are coming

off a real good year. So just, you know, just by subtraction, yeah, I think those two would be the names that pop up the most just because everybody else is either in a stable situation or is a new coach. Willie Fritz has already spoken today. you're going to be hearing from Texas Tech here shortly. Anything anecdotal from Coach Fritz while he was there. I'm sure a lot of the conversation was about how do you maintain these two quarterbacks, one your high-price transferring from Texas A&M,

and one who is considered a top five quarterback candidate in the entire country. Yeah, there was a lot of talk about Connor Wegman and Kishon Henderson. Willie Jokes, he was like a lot of people asking, well, hey, what kind of package are we going to have for the true freshman? He's like, we're going to put in the total package because they feel like now, especially with the new rule in terms of how long you play and when you play you're going to see these guys see the field a lot more. So you're not going to sit them like you used to and redshirt them. So that was one thing.

You know, Willie's talked about just some of the offseason changes that they've made, namely on the offensive side with the O line. I think that's going to be a huge upgrade and what they do. And then, you know, they brought along with them two of the. their premier dbs with Jordan Allen and and Kendra Webb and I think that that position group is going to be

one of the bigger and better ones in the league so yeah we talk some football but but certainly it's sort of just getting this thing off the ground and for Houston kind of going into a season where you know they haven't had these this big of an expectation

since maybe that 22 season coming off of the the wins that they had under Dana but even then that wasn't the big 12. So this is a really big moment for them to capitalize on being in a C4 and being in the discussion for reaching the championship game. How much

do we know about what Henderson did this last offseason in the semester 4? Didn't he join the school early to get ahead of the game a little bit? Yeah, I mean, he was there in December. He went through the bowl practices. He got some reps throughout the spring, equal reps.

I mean, because you know what you have with Connor Wegman. So he got a lot of work. this offseason he has built a relationship with the quarterback coach Sean Bell and you know they're going into the start of camp in early August with the guy that while they don't expect him to be the guy in the start and stuff I mean you've got to get him ready you got to get him some experience and you know if you're looking at your calendar 2027 the openers against LSU that's that's his game that's his moment that's when it's his team but between now and then you got to get him some work and you've got to get him some experience because, you know, it's a big difference.

Whether even if you're the number one recruit in that position in the country, you've got to get acclimated to things. And I think that's because they do think he can help. I think there's going to be situations where they feel like he'll be able to do something. And that's where it'll be interesting to see how they use him and how he fares in his first go-around. A couple more minutes here quick before with Joseph Dwarter for him back to his assignment. any surprising teams that we should keep an air and an eye on this year when it comes to supremacy in the Big 12th. Houston and BYU.

I think YouTube is kind of interesting just because they have a quarterback back. You know, I also think maybe somebody like a, you know, I'm kind of intrigued on Oklahoma Faint. You know, Chad Morris brought his, I'm, excuse me, Eric Moore brought his, I think there was 87 new guys that are going to be on the roster. Wow. And he's got a quarterback that did some tremendous things for him at the previous stop. So if you were looking for a team that could have a really big bounce back year and go from the bottom to that upper, you know, middle tier, I think Oklahoma State should be a team that people watch out for this year.

And then, you know, with Baylor, you look at what Baylor's, they've got a new quarterback, DJ Lagway, who's got some Houston ties. that could be interesting how they turn things around because what happens then with Miranda if they have a good year and go to a bowl. So, I mean, there's a lot of storylines here, but I think those would be the teams I'd be interested to follow throughout the year. Last question. Are there habs and haves-nots in the Big 12 in terms of NIL and budging and whatnot? Or is everybody basically on even ground? It's different from basketball.

Obviously, when you look from the budgets, I don't necessarily know what the breakdown is, the percentage is for what the revenue share is. But I don't think it's as big as some of the other leagues you hear about the SEC and some of the Big Ten schools that are just loading up where there's this huge gap between, you know, the upper tier and the bottom tier. I think the Big 12 is a little bit more grouped together. But in Houston's case, they're not. at the bottom. And from what I'm told, they did invest a lot more this offseason where, you know,

they're competitive in that regard. So yeah, and this new look, Big 12, or at least since the departure of Texas and Oklahoma, I think I think you see a lot more on many levels, whether it's competitive or financial, you have a little bit more closer. There's not a team out there. Now, Texas Tech would be the one outlier was what they spent reportedly last year. And I think, between them and the rest of the league there's a little bit of a gap but i think the cluster or most of the teams in the league are a lot closer together than people may think joseph thank you very much for the time as always tell mr cody campbell i sent my very best and uh we'll talk and you back to town all right buddy