Big 12 football media days opened Tuesday with the kind of buzz that always comes when the season is creeping closer, and the first day delivered plenty to chew on. From a major conference sponsorship to quarterback uncertainty and a few blunt quotes from the league’s biggest names, the day had no shortage of headlines.
The biggest off-field news came first: Monster Energy is now the Big 12’s official entitlement partner. According to the Sports Business Journal, the conference is set to receive $20 million from the energy drink company, with member schools getting $1 million annually.
That money comes with a visible price tag, too. Football and basketball uniforms will now carry Big 12/Monster jersey patches, and the co-branded logos will show up on fields and courts across the conference.
The regular season will also carry new branding, with “Monster Energy Big 12 Football” and Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball.”
Not everyone is likely to love the new look, but the financial side is hard to ignore. If Monster was the company willing to pay the most, the Big 12 made the move that made sense.
One of the more anticipated questions of the day centered on Brendan Sorsby, but commissioner Brett Yormark shut it down before it could go anywhere. “Let me start off by saying I appreciate the question,” Yormark said.
“I appreciate other questions that are probably going to come forth today. Today’s not the time to address that issue.
Today’s about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools.”
That was a notable pause from Yormark, who usually has no problem weighing in. With Sorsby now headed to the NFL, the commissioner clearly wanted the focus to stay on the season rather than revisit that situation.
At Texas Tech, the conversation shifted to quarterback Will Hammond, and there was some encouraging news for the Red Raiders. Hammond, who flashed in backup duty last season before suffering a torn ACL late in the year, had been expected to miss the early part of the 2026 season.
But head coach Joey McGuire sounded optimistic when asked about Week One. “I think he could be, I really do,” McGuire said.
That matters for Texas Tech, which has spent the offseason dealing with uncertainty under center. The roster has talent, but the Red Raiders need a quarterback who can push them toward the top of the sport.
Arizona State also came up as one of the day’s more interesting storylines, though the challenge there has less to do with talent and more to do with logistics. The Sun Devils entered last season as Big 12 favorites, then got hit by injuries and finished 8-4.
They also lost several key pieces, including quarterback Sam Leavitt, who is now in Baton Rouge. This year, head coach Kenny Dillingham pointed to the schedule as the biggest hurdle.
“Our biggest challenge is managing the scheduling”, Dillingham said. “After playing at Texas A&M, we are going straight to London.”
It’s a brutal turnaround, and not many college teams would sign up for it. Dillingham framed it as a once-in-a-lifetime chance for his team, which is about as good an attitude as you can have when the itinerary gets that hectic.
And then there was BYU running back LJ Martin, who arrives as the Big 12 preseason offensive player of the year after rushing for more than 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns last season. Martin, though, isn’t putting much stock in the honor.
“It doesn’t mean much to me, as at this time last year, I wasn’t on any preseason teams,” Martin said. “I’m just trying to stay focused and win as many games as possible.
I’ll let the results be the results. That’s how I went into it last year, and I had a pretty good season, so I want to have that same mentality.”
That kind of mindset is exactly what coaches want to hear. Martin already looks like the league’s top back heading into 2026, and he has a real shot to be one of the best in the country, too.
In Other News...
Joey McGuire Just Changed Texas Techs Biggest Quarterback Timeline
Will Hammonds path back to the field has become one of the more closely watched storylines around Texas Techs quarterback room, and Joey McGuires latest comments only added to the intrigue. The sophomore had been working toward a return after last seasons knee injury, and the expectation for much of the offseason was that his comeback would land a little later in the schedule, leaving the Red Raiders to sort out the opener with other options.
McGuires update changes the feel of that race, because Hammond is no longer being talked about as a distant possibility but as a legitimate part of the conversation for the start of the season. Texas Tech will keep monitoring his progress, and the real question now is how quickly he can keep stacking good days in rehab and practice as the opener approaches. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Star Sends Pointed Message As Texas Tech Drama Reignites
Brendan Sorsbys departure from Texas Tech still lingers as one of the more uncomfortable storylines around the program, and it has started to surface again with BYU in the mix. The former Red Raiders quarterback admitted to placing thousands of bets, including on teams he played for, which led to an NCAA suspension and ultimately ended his time with the team. It is the kind of episode that leaves a mark far beyond one roster spot, especially when the conversation circles back to accountability and what a program has to absorb when a players choices turn into public fallout.
BYU defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa weighed in with a message that stayed focused on responsibility, while also making clear he was thinking about the bigger picture around both Sorsby and Texas Tech. He said he wanted the best for Sorsby as an individual and for the Red Raiders as a team, even as the possibility of seeing Texas Tech again later this season hangs in the background. If that rematch comes, the stakes would be even higher with a Big 12 Championship meeting in play, and Tanuvasa did not hide that he would welcome the chance to line up against them again. [Read more 🡒]
Brett Yormark Had A Tense Response To Texas Tech Frustration
Big 12 media days in Frisco brought a familiar kind of friction to the surface for Texas Tech, as local media personality Sean Dillon pressed Commissioner Brett Yormark on what many around Lubbock see as uneven treatment of the Red Raiders. The exchange centered on two sore spots, the tortilla tossing incident and the Brendan Sorsby situation, both of which have fed the sense that Texas Tech has been on the wrong end of the league conversation.
Yormark did not spend much time entertaining the grievance, saying he was being misquoted and steering the discussion back to the leagues bigger picture. He framed the Big 12 as moving ahead with 16 programs and made clear he wanted the focus on the upcoming 2026 college football season instead of revisiting the controversies that have lingered around Texas Tech. [Read more 🡒]