Big 12 Media Days opened with Brett Yormark trying to steer the conversation away from Brendan Sorsby, and it didn’t take long for the subject to come roaring back.
At The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Tuesday, Yormark was asked about the issue and tried to shut it down.
"Today is not the time to address that issue," Yormark said at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Tuesday. "Today is about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools."
But Sorsby had already spent a big part of June keeping Texas Tech and the Big 12 in the spotlight. The Cincinnati transfer allegedly placed multiple bets on Indiana football as a freshman, then received an injunction allowing him to play through a Lubbock County, Texas district court ruling. After that, the Big 12 filed a lawsuit against Texas Tech before Sorsby eventually agreed to part ways with the Red Raiders.
That set up the follow-up Yormark clearly wasn’t eager to hear. Beyond the Mic host Sean Dillon pressed him again, pointing to the conference’s handling of other controversies and asking why Texas Tech fans should trust the league.
"Texas Tech got fined for tortillas, and tortillas were banned outright," Dillon said. "OSU has had paddles that were given a noise-maker exemption back in 2012.
Sorsby never played a snap for the Red Raiders and yet there is a lawsuit. Cincinnati has yet to be touched.
You're selling greater than 12. Why should Texas Tech fans believe it?"
Yormark had already been asked once at his request, and this time he moved to the right of the podium before firing back.
"I didn't say greater than 12," Yormark said. "You misquoted me. I said we're going forward as 16 strong, and that's my answer to your question."
The exchange was the kind of Media Days moment that hangs around longer than the scripted speeches. Texas Tech is the program at the center of it, and Joey McGuire’s team is also the one carrying the biggest on-field expectations after a 12-2 season and CFP appearance. That’s part of why McGuire was the final coach at the podium Tuesday, after Colorado coach Deion Sanders had already left.
McGuire said he has had support from Big 12 coaches, including Oklahoma State's Eric Morris and BYU's Kalani Sitake, and said Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham cracked a joke in the group text. He also backed Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec and athletic director Kirby Hocutt.
"The thing we really try to focus on is the Red Raiders and our alumni base and our boosters" McGuire said when addressing the fallout from Sorsby. "So, that's with whoever I've talked to or answered any emails or texts or anything like that, those are the ones where I'm concerned to make sure they know where we're coming from."
Yormark also used part of his address to introduce Monster Energy as the conference’s new entitlement partner. The branding will show up on patches and field logos, and he said the deal "will take us to places the conference has never been before."
That kind of business growth has become a hallmark of Yormark’s run as commissioner. On the field, though, Texas Tech is the school that looks most capable of taking the Big 12 somewhere it hasn’t been since the 2005 season.
The league hasn’t won a national title since Texas beat USC 41-38 in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4, 2006.
Texas Tech has the resources to chase that kind of jump. CBS Sports reported the school had $55 million to spend on NIL for the 2025-26 school year, with mega booster Cody Campbell as the most influential spender. The Red Raiders also had nine players selected in the 2026 NFL Draft, and McGuire has shown he knows how to use the transfer portal.
That doesn’t mean the path is clear for Texas Tech or the rest of the league. BYU, Utah, Houston and others can still make noise. But the Red Raiders look like the best bet to become the Big 12 program that can finally change the conference’s national perception.
McGuire said that’s bigger than one team.
"I think it's really important that this conference gets multiple teams in the playoffs," McGuire said. "There's an obligation as programs in this conference that we play at a high level, and I think that's really important that we win in the playoffs. Until we do that as a conference, then we're going to continue the same narrative that we have right now."
That’s the real backdrop here: the Big 12 wants the attention, the money and the results, but it also needs the Sorsby mess to fade. Yormark said the conference will keep educating student-athletes about sports betting, calling integrity "critically important for all sports, for this conference," and noting that today’s athletes are growing up in a very different environment than the one he knew.
For Texas Tech and the Big 12, that’s the part that matters now. The episode happened.
The noise happened. The next step is making sure it doesn’t define what comes next.
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