Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark made one thing clear Tuesday at football media days in Frisco, Texas: he wanted the focus on the season ahead, not the Brendan Sorsby gambling mess that has swirled around Texas Tech and rattled college sports.
The first question he got after his opening remarks went straight to that issue, and Yormark shut it down.
“I appreciate the question. I appreciate other questions that are probably going to come forth today.
Today is not the time to address that issue,” Yormark answered. "Today is about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools.”
He later doubled down on that message, describing the league as moving ahead “as 16 strong.”
That included Texas Tech, one of the schools that had been under discussion for possible punishment if Sorsby had actually taken the field this fall after transferring from Cincinnati. The Big 12 and its other 15 members had been weighing that possibility.
Sorsby will not play, even after he was granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA last month that would have kept him eligible. The quarterback acknowledged making thousands of impermissible bets worth at least $90,000 on college and pro sports, including some wagers on his own team when he was a freshman at Indiana in 2022. In past cases, that kind of conduct had led to players being banned from playing.
He later dropped his lawsuit against the NCAA, which made him ineligible again after the NCAA appealed the injunction. The Big 12 also filed a still-pending federal complaint in U.S. District Court in Dallas as it tried to preserve its ability to use league bylaws for possible sanctions against Texas Tech had Sorsby played this season.
Yormark was pressed on why Texas Tech fans should buy into the idea of the league being united. The reporter pointed to the conference’s move last year against the school’s tortilla-throwing tradition, which passed on a 15-1 vote, and also noted that Oklahoma State has an artificial noise exemption for students to bang paddles against the stadium pads along the sideline. Cincinnati, Sorsby’s former school, was also mentioned.
Yormark walked across the stage, then asked the reporter to stand up and repeat the question.
“I said we’re going forward as 16 strong, and that’s my answer to your question,” Yormark then answered.
Yormark also used the day to announce a multiyear deal with Monster Energy that will make the brand the entitlement partner for conference-controlled Big 12 regular-season football games, along with men’s and women’s basketball.
He said the partnership is “built on the right brand and culture alignment. ... (and) will take this conference to places it has not been before.”
The agreement will put a co-branded Monster Energy and Big 12 logo on football and basketball jerseys, fields and courts, with additional presence across the conference’s digital and social media channels. Monster’s first partnership in college athletics came last fall, when it became the conference’s official energy drink.
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