BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 18, 2023

Brett Yormark

Commissioner

Commissioner Media Day Press Conference

BRETT YORMARK: Hello, everybody. Thrilled to be here. Thrilled to see you. I'll start out by thanking all of you for all you do for us. It's well-appreciated.

I'm incredibly excited for the basketball season to tip off. Later today, you'll hear from our women's basketball coaches, our student-athletes, and when I think about last year, I saw more women's basketball than I did men's. I became a quick lover of the sport, and most importantly, I'm very bullish on the sport and its future moving forward.

The last time I took this stage, I was three months into the job. I spoke about our TV negotiations that were ongoing at the time, my desire to make the Big 12 a national conference, and I reiterated that we would double down on Big 12 basketball.

One year later, we have a deal with ESPN and FOX that provides our conference with stability and the biggest platform possible for our student-athletes.

We've become a national conference spanning 10 states, four time zones, and a footprint of over 90 million people. As we grow to a 16-team league, the best conference in basketball just got better.

Our conference has never been stronger than it is right now. On the men's side, the nation's best 70 percent of Big 12 teams played in last year's tournament, and the women's side had the nation's leading 60 percent of teams in the women's tournament.

This season you will see four new additions to the conference. We are thrilled to formally welcome BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to Big 12 basketball.

We will continue to provide new levels of access and behind-the-scenes content across our broadcasts. We will be industry leaders when it comes to broadcast enhancements and innovation. These enhancements will be applied not just to men's basketball but to women's, as well.

On that front, we are working with ESPN to explore an alternate broadcast for a game or two that will appeal to a younger audience and further connect our conference to culture.

Our women's game is growing across broadcast platforms, as well. This season three games will be on national TV for the first time in conference history, with 13 conference match-ups on linear broadcasts.

Our conference has the best venues and fan bases across the country. Like last year, I'll be on campus throughout the season taking in many women's and men's basketball games in person and spending a lot of time with our student-athletes and coaches.

This year we're also going to be introducing a new weekly sports show on Sirius XM that highlights women's basketball and other Olympic sports in order to better tell our student-athletes' stories.

I also experienced my first Big 12 men's and women's basketball championship this past March, and I was blown away by the fan support and the support this city of Kansas City gives the Big 12 basketball championships.

The 2023 men's basketball championship was the highest ticket grossing in conference history, while the women's championship saw a 20 percent year-over-year increase in ticket revenue.

As you know, this year both men's and women's championships will be played right here at T-Mobile. Tickets will go on sale November 10th.

All new enhancements will be introduced for both men's and women's basketball, and Shaq will of course make another appearance at Power & Light this spring.

We will introduce new premium hospitality and ticketing options, adding an additional 244 new premium seats. Last year saw the introduction of our first Championship Club, and we are continuing our expansion of hospitality club spaces to include a new concourse level for our fans this year.

Many of you provided feedback surrounding the media seating in last year's championship at T-Mobile. We heard you, and we have made a change.

This year, six floor seats, six floor-level media seats, will be provided for each game. Both participating schools will receive two seats each for beat writers of their choice to sit and cover the game. The remaining two seats will go to the Associated Press and the Kansas City Star. I want to repeat this one more time. This year, six floor-level media seats will be provided for each game. Both participating schools will receive two seats each for beat writers of their choice to sit and cover the game. The remaining two seats will go to the Associated Press and the Kansas City Star.

All other media will be seated in the hockey press box like last year, with access to their own elevator and continued access to the press workroom and other amenities that are afforded to the press.

Kansas City has been a great home for the Big 12 basketball championships. Because of that, we are currently in discussions on an early extension to keep the Big 12 basketball championships right here in Kansas City at T-Mobile arena through 2031.

While nothing is definitive at this point, we are excited by the prospect of calling Kansas City home for years to come. We hope to finalize this by the start of the basketball championships next spring.

We are committed to the Kansas City community and continue to further integrate ourselves. This week, in fact, we will be hosting various business leaders for a luncheon tomorrow.

Beyond this season, our future is very bright. We are continuing to plan for Big 12 Mexico's 2024 tip-off, which will see Kansas and Houston -- Houston's men's and women's basketball programs square off in Mexico City. We will make our return to Rucker Park next summer and are looking to do an alumni game this time around.

Given recent expansion, scheduling and travel are a major priority for us at the conference. For basketball, it is looking like a 20-game conference schedule for men and 18 for women is in our future.

On the football front, we are working diligently, as well. Our scheduling is being guided by a few key parameters: Geography, competitive balance, historic match-ups, and rivalries. More details will be released in the coming weeks when it comes to our football schedule.

Same goes for Olympic sports. Prioritizing geography, rivalries, and match-ups will be our guiding principles.

I won't be commenting on expansion speculation today, but I will say this: No different than last year, if an opportunity presents itself for me to strengthen this conference, I'm going to explore it.

I said before that I think basketball is undervalued, but it goes beyond just monetizing it. No sport connects better with culture than basketball. It's also a great catalyst for international growth.

Basketball is growing in popularity, and it resonates with younger audiences. It will continue to grow and will play a huge role in the future of our industry.

Streaming is certainly going to play a role in the future of this industry, as we all know, and volume is key to streamers. Big 12 basketball in its depth provides that better than anyone.

Our industry is a dynamic one. There's incredible momentum and positivity across college athletics. But we have our challenges, too. Engagement with my commissioner colleagues continues on the CFP executive director search process, television rights for the expanded playoff, Capitol Hill efforts and outreach to elected officials, and working with NCAA president Charlie Baker to reimagine the NCAA model.

As we kick off this season, I want to thank all of our basketball coaches, student-athletes and staff, as well as you, the media, for your commitment to excellence, as the reason we can say that the Big 12 is the best conference in the game of basketball.

Thank you all for being here, and I think we're going to take some questions.

Q. Can you envision a time when basketball TV or streaming is negotiated separately from football and have just different contracts for football and for basketball?

BRETT YORMARK: That's a great question. I've addressed that before, but in our recent TV negotiations, which obviously were concluded about a year ago, we gave ourselves some optionality, when you think about our back-end rights, not only to renew in the traditional format but also to potentially break apart basketball from football.

I think my job as commissioner, our job as a conference office, is to explore all options and to further monetize what we do and to create value for our member institutions.

If a situation presents itself where we can create more value by decoupling football from basketball, we'll pursue it. But that doesn't mean we're going to do it. Assistant all about the value equation. But at least we have the optionality to pursue it if we feel it's appropriate.

Thank you for the question.

Q. You just talked about elevating the women's game through the radio show, et cetera, but you also mentioned probably 20 conference games for the men, 18 for the women. Why the potential difference in those schedules?

BRETT YORMARK: Ultimately it's what the coaches were looking to do as far as the 18. You're going to play three schools twice, 12 once, and there will be a bye week. That's kind of where they settled. The men decided on a 20-game schedule. But the heads of basketball, both men's and women's, are here and maybe they have a better answer than that. But I think that's just where we landed. And the women's tournament is earlier.

Q. We all look at X and Twitter and things like that, saw the young man Danny Hurley from Connecticut last night that said something to the extent of the Big East is the best conference, and I don't think it's even close. You might differ in opinion. Could you give your reasons why?

BRETT YORMARK: I mean, listen, history speaks for itself. The data speaks for itself. Our ratings, our participation, the tournament, where we've been the last five years. I don't think there's a deeper conference in America than the Big 12 right now when it comes to men's basketball.

Danny is a great coach. UConn is a great program. But I would certainly debate him on that.

Q. You mentioned preserving the natural rivalries that will exist with the incoming schools. In particular Arizona and Arizona State have the Territorial Cup. Will that stay in play on both men's and women's basketball?

BRETT YORMARK: We're exploring all that right now. We haven't come up with any definitive decisions, but rivalries, historic match-ups are critically important for us. They're some of our guiding principles. As I sit here today with no definitive answer, I'd say it's most likely that that will occur, but nothing has been cemented yet.

Thank you for the question.

Q. You had mentioned the possibility of an alternate broadcast. What could that look like, and what do you hope to accomplish?

BRETT YORMARK: Well, you're seeing that right now with the NFL and other sports properties. It's something we're working with our media partners on now, too. For us it's a way to introduce the game to a younger audience that typically isn't watching it on a digital platform or traditional linear. We're exploring that option.

I want to be the first conference to pursue that, and I'm very bullish that you'll see some things this winter, and we're going to do it through basketball.

Q. You delivered the four corner schools, which you viewed as a dream scenario. What's the next dream you have for this league?

BRETT YORMARK: Just to continue to create value where I can. When I think about our conference, we're 27 years old. I think in many respects, we're a mature startup. We're in our infancy stages. We have to explore every possibility and opportunity to continue to grow and create value for our member institutions, and that's what my job is.

There's nothing imminent, but I do explore all options that come to me, and if it creates value for membership, both short- and long-term, I'm going to pursue it even further.

But right now we love the makeup and composition of this conference, love the four corners that are joining us. They've already started to integrate, the four schools. They've been attending meetings. We're strategizing on what next year looks like.

So there's nothing imminent with respect to expansion. We're really happy about where we are now, as I said in my opening comments. We've become national. That was a goal of ours, from coast to coast. We doubled down on basketball for all the right reasons through expansion, and I'm very bullish on our future.

Q. What do you like best about Kansas City?

BRETT YORMARK: You know, I love the people. I came here for the first time last year. My first introduction was this media day to Kansas City. It was my first time ever here, and really enjoyed it. Met a lot of great people. They're warm. They're passionate about what we do and what collectively we're building together.

I like the restaurant scene, too. They've got great restaurants in town.

But I just love the people. It's a great sports community, obviously with the Chiefs leading the way.

As I said earlier, we want to be here. We want to be here for all the right reasons long-term. But that's a great question. Thank you for being here today.

Q. How many girl teams have won?

BRETT YORMARK: Listen, we have great women's programs throughout the conference. There's such a great future in women's sports, as I said earlier today. Hopefully you'll get a chance to meet some of our student-athletes that are here today. They do an incredible job both on and off the court, and they serve as an inspiration for so many. Hopefully you'll have a chance to meet them.

Q. In terms of the sanctions that came down for Kansas last week and they have to repay that money they got from that Final Four run in 2018, where does that money go? Does it go to the conference? Does it go to the NCAA? Do you know where that winds up?

BRETT YORMARK: You know what, I'm not familiar with that dynamic as far as the economics there. All I can say, it was a campus issue. I think the program has been vindicated, and I think the outcome was a fair one for all, and I'm sure they're happy with it, but the economics and the financials I'm not aware of. Something I'll probably have to look into. But great question. Thank you.

Q. We hear a lot of talk about the Big Ten and the SEC helping to drive college football forward. How do you see the Big 12 conference's role in helping to push college athletics and helping that to expand?

BRETT YORMARK: Well, as far as I'm concerned, I don't think about the Big Ten or the SEC. I wake up every morning thinking about how do we create value and be the best version of ourselves, the Big 12. I think across the board, we're on a great track.

Our football is exciting, lots of parity, scoring a lot of points. It's made-for-TV drama. Our ratings are up. Excited about football.

Basketball, we're getting better, both men's and women's, and excited about our future there.

Then Olympic sports with the incoming four, we got much better in Olympic sports. So when I think about our future, I think from a three-pronged approach: How do we continue to grow football, how do we continue to keep doubling down on basketball, and how do we continue to amplify Olympic sports for all the right reasons.

Again, as I said earlier, I'm very bullish on where we're going and the future of this conference.

Q. You mentioned Big 12 Mexico next year with Kansas and Houston. Are there other cities or countries that you would like to target internationally in the future for this league?

BRETT YORMARK: Well, great question. We do have an international strategy, but I think it starts right now with Mexico City.

When I took the job and I was somewhat familiar with some of the international play that the different conferences were engaged in, I didn't want to partake in one-off -- a football game this year in Dublin, a football game somewhere else, and I wanted to have a vested interest, and we chose Mexico City for all the right reasons. It's a great extension to our geographic footprint, fits very naturally for us. There's 22 million people in Mexico City. A couple of our schools have campus extensions in Mexico City for recruitment. So I think that's where we're going to put our energies and emphasis right now.

Basketball will be our first entry into the market. Beyond that, we're looking at women's soccer. We're also looking at baseball. But for now, Mexico City seems to be the market that we're really focused on.

Thank you for the question.

Q. You mentioned in your opening statements that women's basketball really got on your radar screen when you took this job. What was the turning point for you?

BRETT YORMARK: Just going to games, experiencing it, meeting with student-athletes.

I was the president and CEO of the Brooklyn Nets for many, many years. The Liberty were obviously local, but unfortunately I hadn't really had an opportunity to really take in many of those games, so last year was my first exposure to women's basketball formally. I saw more women's basketball games than I did men's. Just was taken with the athleticism, the spirit, the passion.

I'll be taking quite a few games in this year, and I think the sport has a wonderful future. I've been caught up in the WNBA championships right now, saw the game when the Liberty won the other night. It's a great game to watch. We're going to put a lot of focus on it moving forward.

Q. Keeping on that women's basketball theme, there's a lot of momentum created last year with the Final Four and obviously what Iowa did a couple days ago. How can this conference capitalize on that and add to that growth?

BRETT YORMARK: I think we're doing it already. The first big step, and it predates me, is bringing the women here to T-Mobile. They deserve to be in a world-class venue, and I'm excited that this year we'll have both men's and women's. We're going to amplify and elevate and storytell like never before. Our TV partners are going to give greater exposure, as I mentioned earlier. We'll have a lot of linear exposure for our women's game this year. It'll be a focus of our weekly Sirius XM show. We're going to put a lot of emphasis on it. We see it's a big area of growth, and our TV partners feel the same way, so we're excited about it.

Thank you for the question.

Q. Are you going to be on ESPN all the time?

BRETT YORMARK: We have two great TV partners. We have ESPN and we have FOX as a conference. But basketball right now is only with ESPN.

Moving forward in our new TV deal, FOX will be doing some TV. But right now it's just ESPN, but great question.