Brett Yormark Continues To Impress: 36 Days Until Kansas Football
While the addition of Colorado Buffaloes to the Big 12 was all but done yesterday, the news was made official with the shortest statement I've ever seen come from a commissioner.
It was a beautiful (likely) unintentional shot at a departing member, but also a perfect encapsulation of what has made Brett Yormark a success in his short tenure at the helm of the Big 12 Conference.
At Big 12 Media Days, Yormark highlighted all of the accomplishments for the conference since last season, and many of them followed a similar vein. The majority of the planning went on behind the scenes, with careful data gathering, quiet deliberations and then decisive resolutions with effective but simple messaging.
It's a pattern that has happened with many of the initiatives, from Big 12 Mexico to the event in Rucker Park. In reviewing each of those big announcements that came, I saw the same thing. None of those moves seemed rushed. And all of them were accompanied by a simple message that explained why it was beneficial and how exciting the opportunity is.
In a period where the optics are sometimes more important than the substance of the message, Yormark has managed to give us both. He has taken a conference that was on the brink of collapse just two seasons ago and turned it into the clear third-best conference moving forward (no matter what ACC fans will tell you).
And he has done it by being unconventional and brash, saying things that most other leaders in college football would shy away from to be polite. There are reports that the Big Ten hasn't added Oregon and Washington at least in part because they didn't want to be responsible for single-handedly destroying the Pac 12. But Yormark has been very direct with his responses and communicating his plans, even if it has ruffled some feathers.
The news from Boulder today illustrates the harsh reality of college sports. No matter how much schools want to be committed to each other and stick together, there is a point where those loyalties have to be cast aside for your own interests. And as Yormark has reminded us, the sooner you realize that and the more honest you are about it, the better off your school will be.
