{"id":88938,"date":"2026-07-07T12:44:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=88938"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:44:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:44:48","slug":"brett-yormark-address-topics-that-arent-brendan-sorsby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/07\/07\/brett-yormark-address-topics-that-arent-brendan-sorsby\/","title":{"rendered":"Brett Yormark Addresses Topics That Aren’t Brendan Sorsby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest story of the college football off-season was in the Big 12. And conference commissioner Brett Yormark was not going to get anywhere near the Brendan Sorsby<\/a> topic as Big 12 Media Days opened in Frisco, Texas, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Brett Yormark Addresses Topics That Aren’t Brendan Sorsby<\/h2>\n

The Brendan Sorsby Elephant in the Room<\/h3>\n

As Yormark opened the two-day-long event, he addressed several topics and questions from the media. It was a given that the first one was going to be about the drama surrounding the would-be Texas Tech quarterback, his gambling issues, and all the legal morass surrounding the issue.<\/p>\n

Yormark wasn\u2019t going to take the bait. \u201cToday is not the time to address that issue,\u201d Yormark said when asked about the conference\u2019s handling of the Sorsby chaos. \u201cToday is about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools.\u201d With it being clear that he was not going to delve into the topic in any manner, that was the end of the media questions about it.<\/p>\n

Congressional Intervention<\/h3>\n

On the other major topic of the off-season, the US Senate\u2019s Protect College Sports Act<\/a> legislation, Yormark gave his unfettered support, while admitting that the bill has some things that he would like to see tweaked. \u201cWhen you go to people and ask for help, you\u2019re not going to get exactly what you want,\u201d Yormark said of his lobbying efforts with Congress. Yormark said that, as of his most recent conversations with two of the bill\u2019s co-sponsors<\/a>, Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), there was still a lot of negotiating going on as to certain elements of the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at where we have landed right now as progress over perfection,\u201d Yormark said. \u201cNothing is going to be perfect. But the question is, can we make progress? Are we better off with a bill than without one?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yormark highlighted restrictions on agents, changes to the transfer portal, revenue-sharing cap circumvention, and limited liability protection via antitrust exemptions for the NCAA and the conferences as things he favored in the bill. Yormark said he is going back to Capitol Hill next week for further discussions on the particulars. The proposed bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee last month with a 19-9 vote. It is pending a vote of the full Senate, possibly in July.<\/p>\n

Finances<\/h3>\n

Along with the new world of congressional intervention into college sports is the role of outside interests in funding university athletic departments. Yormark addressed the issue of private equity playing a part in the financing and potential ownership of Big 12 athletic departments. \u201cEach conference, each school has to do what\u2019s in their best interest.\u201d He noted that the Big 12 struck a deal with RedBird Capital, which he described as business development as opposed to traditional private equity.<\/p>\n

The conference did announce that all schools will have a sponsor patch on their uniforms. The Big 12 has struck a marketing deal with Monster Energy drinks.<\/p>\n

Playoff Expansion<\/h3>\n

The commissioner also discussed where he sees things in terms of the still-unresolved College Football Playoff expansion. He admitted that he was once in favor of expanding from the current 12-team format to 16 teams. But then, after further review, he came out in favor of expanding to 24 teams. But he also said his position is not firm, and it depends on what sacrifices might come to conferences if they expand to 24 teams for the playoff. He said, based on the revenue that is derived from the Big 12 championship game, he would not be in favor of losing that in exchange for a particular expansion number. But he was certain that the Big 12 needs more access to playoff spots.<\/p>\n

The conferences have until December 1st<\/sup> to approve a new plan for 2027 and beyond and submit it to the television network partners.<\/p>\n

Going to Ask Anyway<\/h3>\n

There was one question from a reporter that did draw a bit of Yormark\u2019s ire. He had vowed not to address the Sorsby issue. But he was asked why Texas Tech had its tradition of throwing tortillas banned, but Cincinnati, the school Sorsby had previously played for, while gambling, had not faced any conference penalties. Yormark walked down the stage to near where the writer was. He asked the writer to stand up and ask the question again. \u201cI said we\u2019re forward 16-strong [the number of teams in the Big 12] and that\u2019s my answer to your question. Yormark decidedly returned to behind the podium after that.<\/p>\n

Main Image: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest story of the college football off-season was in the Big 12. And conference commissioner Brett Yormark was not going to get anywhere near the Brendan Sorsby topic as Big 12 Media Days opened in Frisco, Texas, on Tuesday. Brett Yormark Addresses Topics That Aren’t Brendan Sorsby The Brendan Sorsby Elephant in the Room […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":88943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[3306,9128],"class_list":["post-88938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big12","category-featured","tag-big-12-media-days","tag-brett-yormark"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88938"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88944,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88938\/revisions\/88944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}