Yormark pushes for expanded conference schedules in basketball, football
Brett Yormark addressed the media Friday morning, touching on some of the most widely discussed issues in collegiate athletics, including a potential 24-team CFP expansion and possible government legislation.
Among the biggest priorities for the Big 12, however, is enhancing the league’s image and overall brand.
On the scheduling front, Commissioner Yormark floated the possibility of returning to a 20-game conference model for men’s basketball, as well as introducing a 10-game conference slate in football. Both moves would be aimed at boosting viewership; something Yormark says is necessary, given that out-of-conference matchups draw roughly three times fewer viewers than inter-conference games.
“When you do an analysis of our ratings this past basketball season, our conference ratings are three times what the out-of-conference games are for the Big 12.
So, if you’re in the ratings game you probably want more of the good stuff, right? That was the impetus of the discussion of, can we go back to 20? In 2025 we had 20 games and we went back this past year to 18. So it’s certainly something we need to consider as we think about how do we grow the Big 12 moving forward”
Commissioner Yormark continued the press conference by diving deeper into the potential scheduling models, noting that the conference still needs to explore various options before determining what works best for the Big 12’s brand and image. He also emphasized that smarter, more strategic scheduling overall will be key to driving the conference’s continued growth.
“We also discussed scheduling, and our board understands the need to schedule differently as we continue to raise the profile narrative and viewership of Big 12 football and basketball.
This might potentially mean going to 20 men’s basketball conference games and 10 conference football games in the near future, but that will need to be further explored and discussed out of everything discussed this week.
One of the most notable takeaways for me is that cohesion among our board has never been stronger. We have 16 institutions that all share the same mission and vision and have strong alignment on many key issues.”
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