52 Days Until Kansas Football: Previewing Big 12 Media Days
Starting tomorrow morning, the teams of the Big 12 conference will converge in Arlington, TX to kick off the beginning of the college football season at Big 12 Media Days. Sure the action doesn't actually kick off for almost 2 more months, but it's the first opportunity to hear from the conference leadership and coaches from around the conference. And the storylines are even more intriguing after the craziness that was UCLA and USC making official a move to the Big Ten in 2024.
Last season, everything seemed normal, with Bob Bowlsby joking about winning a bet because no one asked him a question about conference realignment. The realignment bomb dropped shortly afterwards, as news leaked that Oklahoma and Texas had been planning their exit from the conference for nearly a year. This time, the huge news dropped before the start of the silly season. The realignment questions are on the tip of everyone's tongue this year.
After not attending Media Days in person last year due to thunderstorms that prevented the plane from taking off, Lance Leipold and the Kansas Jayhawks left today to make sure that they were in attendance.
Schedule
Media Days will be shown live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with the broadcast slated to start at 8:30am on Wednesday, July 13th. New commissioner Brett Yormark will open up the program with some remarks, after which Baylor President Linda Livingstone will address those in attendance. Starting the day on Thursday, July 14th will be Greg Burks, the Big 12 Coordinator of Officials at 9am, followed by Matthew Sign, National Football Foundation Chief Operating Officer.
The schedule for the head coach press conferences are below (all times Central):
Wednesday
10:35 - 10:55am: Baylor Coach Dave Aranda
11:05 - 11:25am: Kansas Coach Lance Leipold
11:35 - 11:55am: West Virginia Coach Neal Brown
12:05 - 12:25pm: Kansas State Coach Chris Kleiman
12:35 - 12:55pm: Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy
Thursday
10:35 - 10:55am: Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables
11:05 - 11:25am: Texas Tech Coach Joey McGuire
11:35 - 11:55am: Iowa State Coach Matt Campbell
12:05 - 12:25pm: TCU Coach Sonny Dykes
12:35 - 12:55pm: Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian
Kansas Contingent
In addition to Leipold, the Jayhawks are sending 4 players to Media Days: senior safety Kenny Logan Jr, junior quarterback Jalon Daniels, sophomore running back Devin Neal and super-senior offensive tackle Earl Bostick Jr.
The players will be making the rounds on Wednesday, with appearances with ESPN, SiriusXM, ESPNU, CBS, Fox, and live radio hits throughout the day. Lance Leipold will make the same rounds, but not at the exact same time.
We will keep track of any news that breaks and bring you some reactions to everything tomorrow.
Storylines to Watch
While there are no expectations for big news to break during Media Days, there are plenty of storylines to watch this year:
- New Coaches - There are lots of coaches making their first appearances here at Big 12 Media Days, including Leipold who had to make his comments remotely last year due to travel issues. Brent Venables, Joey McGuire and Sonny Dykes are all going into their first seasons. It will be interesting to see what kind of energy they bring to their first official conference event.
- Realignment Questions - Nobody actually expects big updates about conference realignment to happen this week. Part of that is because most schools that might be involved are still gathering information about the options that they would have. But most of the maneuvering happens behind closed doors, and the information likely won't leak until everything is already done. But expect lots of stories from reporters that will try to read too much into the comments that are made to support their favorite theory about what is happening.
- Yormark's Performance - As unfair as it might be, especially since his first official day on the job isn't until August 1, Brett Yormark is going to be evaluated based on his performance here. Bob Bowlsby was routinely ridiculed by fans that thought he was out of touch and slow to react to the changing landscape of college football. I expect there to be plenty of editorial pieces this week talking about how (un)impressive he will be in his brief comments to open Media Days. What will he do to show he is up to the task of steering the Big 12 through the turmoil of unexpected conference realignment?
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