Brett Yormark’s four-year run as Big 12 commissioner is the kind of stretch that invites both praise and eye-rolls. He gave the league a fresh edge, but he also leaned hard into the kind of theatrics that left plenty of people shaking their heads.
The complaints are easy to find, and the latest year supplied a few of them. The Monster move annoyed some around the league, not because the logo was merely loud, but because the deal itself rubbed people the wrong way and, in the view of some, cost individual schools millions.
Then came the glass court, which looked like a bold swing on the surface and then turned into a very Yormark kind of mess. It drew attention with its advertising and pregame buzz, but it also came with slipping, Christian Anderson’s injury, and a sense that the gimmick was crowding out the basketball.
In the end, the league moved back to a normal surface on a TEMU Louis Vuitton court. Big 12 Mexico, the piece notes, might be the purest version of the Yormark era yet.
Still, the bigger picture matters more than the flashy stuff. Yormark was hired to keep the Big 12 alive, and that job got done.
The last round of TV negotiations was described as one of the scariest moments the league had faced, with the gap between Iowa State staying in a stable Big 12 and ending up in a situation like Oregon State’s said to be “just a hair.” That disaster never happened because Yormark steered the conference through it.
He made his intentions plain from the start, saying on day one that the league “is open for business.” He followed through.
While the Big Ten struck the Pac-12 hard, Yormark moved quickly and helped bring in Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. The article makes the point that another commissioner might have done the same, but it also argues that no one really wants to imagine the alternative.
If Bob Bowlsby had still been running the league, the story could have looked very different.
The Big 12 is stronger now than it was when Yormark took over, but it’s not sitting still. The money race with the SEC and Big Ten keeps pushing everyone harder.
And there’s more uncertainty ahead, too, with the ACC still a live question. If Miami, Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina leave for the Big Ten, the league’s next commissioner could end up as the next vulture in the sky.
However the rest of the conference realignment picture shakes out, one thing is already settled: a new TV deal is coming in 2031. Whoever follows Yormark will have a real job on their hands. The Big 12 survived because of him, and the hope now is that the league can do more than survive once he’s gone.
In Other News...
Iowa State Faces A Brutal Test As Injuries Keep Mounting
Drew Surges is back on the field for Iowa State, and the sight of the safety wearing a protective club on his right arm says plenty about how this season has gone. After breaking the arm earlier in the year, Surges has returned to play while the Cyclones keep grinding through a run of injuries that has thinned out the roster and made every week feel a little heavier. The challenge only gets steeper with No. 24 Oklahoma State coming next, another test in a schedule that has already asked a lot of this group.
Still, the message around the program has been about staying steady rather than feeling sorry for itself. Surges and head coach Jimmy Rogers have stressed resilience and preparation, with Iowa State trying to hold together through adversity and keep competing the way it wants to even when the lineup is less than full strength. For a team already dealing with a depleted roster, the question now is not just whether it can line up on Saturday, but how much more it can absorb before the grind starts to show. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Defense Has One Urgent Problem Before Oklahoma State
Iowa States defense has spent much of this season trying to clean up the same issue, and it has shown up in the kind of way that changes games early. Recognition on the back end has been inconsistent, opponents have been able to score quickly, and those breakdowns have helped put the Cyclones in chase mode far too often. With the offense leaning so heavily on the run, that kind of start has made the margin for error awfully small.
Oklahoma State now brings the urgency into sharper focus. For Iowa State, this is the kind of matchup that can reveal whether the defense has truly settled in or is still living with the same problems that have contributed to multiple losses. If the Cyclones fall behind again, the pass game has not been reliable enough to offer much comfort, which only makes the pressure on that unit even more obvious. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State's Ceiling Still Comes Down To One Massive Backcourt Question
Iowa States place in Joe Lunardis latest bracketology comes with a familiar kind of optimism, as the Cyclones are projected as a No. 3 seed in the East Region and penciled in for a Round of 64 matchup with Harvard. If the bracket holds, Nebraska would be waiting in the next round, which is exactly the sort of path that invites bigger conversations about how high this roster can climb once March arrives.
At the center of those conversations is point guard Tamin Lipsey, whose potential fifth season remains tied up in a lawsuit in Indiana. For a team with real top-end aspirations, the issue is bigger than one players status because Lipseys return could shape the entire ceiling of the backcourt and, by extension, the Cyclones postseason outlook. Until theres clarity there, the most important question around Iowa State is less about where it is seeded and more about how complete it can be. [Read more 🡒]