Big 12 Board of Directors to Extend Contract of Commissioner Brett Yormark

Yorkmark's work during the latest era of conference realignment and a changing college sports landscape has earned the commissioner a contract extension.

Big 12 conference commissioner Brett Yormark has earned a contract extension. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The Big 12 Conference Board of Directors has agreed to a three-year contract extension with league commissioner Brett Yormark, according to a report from ESPN's Pete Thamel.

Yormark, who has been under contract since 2022, had an initial deal set to run through 2027. He's now locked in through the 2030 season as the leader of the Big 12 conference.

Yormark took the job as conference commissioner from Bob Bowlsby and has ushered the league into a new era during conference realignment. The Big 12 lost Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, but under Yormark's direction, the league fortified itself with the addition of four new schools - Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. Yormark added these schools to the conference after he led the league in securing a six-year, $2.28 billion television deal with Fox and ESPN. Yormark accomplished the new TV deal more than a year before the Pac-12, which effectively boxed the conference out of television negotiations with ESPN and Fox. The lack of a new television deal ultimately led to the Pac-12's demise in its former iteration in 2023.

In addition to adding four new schools, Yormark came aboard just as the Big 12 was bringing in four new members that had agreed to join the league prior to his arrival under Bob Bowlsby. Yormark assisted in the transition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.

Due to the work he's done in strengthening the depth of the league after key departures of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, he has earned his new extension with the Big 12 as he continues to lead the conference into the revenue sharing era of college athletics.

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