ARLINGTON — This time final 12 months, Bob Bowlsby was nonetheless the commissioner of a steady 10-team league. He didn’t count on both of these issues to vary after Big 12 media days wrapped up.
Eight days later, Hearst Newspapers’ Brent Zwerneman blindsided Bowlsby (and everybody else) with a report that Texas and Oklahoma had engaged in discussions with the SEC about becoming a member of the convention. That kicked off the most recent spherical of convention realignment, with the Longhorns and Sooners now set to hitch the SEC no later than July 1, 2025.
And on the finish of this month, after a decade on the job, Bowlsby will formally cross to torch to the convention’s fifth commissioner, former Brooklyn Nets and Roc Nation govt Brett Yormark.
“Obviously, much has happened since we were together last in this venue for media days last year,” Bowlsby mentioned Wednesday morning throughout his closing Big 12 media days news convention at AT&T Stadium. “In fact, some of you will recall that I said at the time that I thought our board was as aligned as I had seen them during my 10 years with the Big 12. It was, I think, eight days later that OU and Texas announced they were going to the SEC. So you can take my assessment of calm waters for what they’re worth.”
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Bowlsby is bouncing amid all of the realignment chaos — in spite of everything, he already did this again in 2012 — however Yormark appears to be embracing it.
Of course, Yormark on Wednesday needed to tackle the fixed rumblings concerning the Longhorns and Sooners bolting for the SEC a 12 months or two sooner than 2025, which coincides with the expiration of the Big 12’s media rights offers with ESPN and FOX.
“First of all, the folks from Texas, both the president and AD, as well as at Oklahoma, they’ve been very gracious to me,” Yormark mentioned Wednesday. “They were a part of the process in me getting hired, so I appreciate the support that I received. I’m sure there’s going to be a moment in time where we’re going to sit down and discuss the future, obviously I don’t start until August 1, and I look forward to doing that. That’s really all I can say at this point in time.”
He added: “From my perspective, I have a lot to learn. But in any situation like this, I always look for a win-win scenario. That being said, it’s important that whatever happens is in the best interest of this conference.”
For Texas and Oklahoma, becoming a member of the SEC at any level earlier than their grant of media rights offers expire in 2025 would require a hefty buyout price equal to the sum of the convention distribution cash that in any other case could be paid out through the closing two years of membership, per phrases of the grant of rights settlement. (The Big 12 distributed $42.6 million to every of its members for the 2021-22 tutorial 12 months.)
Both packages may negotiate a decrease buyout value with the convention if Yormark and the Big 12 board of administrators deem it in everybody’s finest curiosity. He not less than left open that chance Wednesday, and the final consensus nonetheless appears to be that Texas and Oklahoma will be part of the SEC in the summertime of 2024.
If the Big 12 does scoop up 4 and even six extra faculties from the Pac-12, it may make an earlier breakup with Texas and Oklahoma extra palatable for all sides.
Twitter: @NRMoyle
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