Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark says Big 12 wants to expand "out west"

The Big 12 commissioner is making it known that he is targeting schools in Pac-12 territory

The passive aggressive rivalry between the Big 12 and Pac-12 stemming from conference realignment rumors has continued to blossom, even despite the start of the football season. 

The Big 12 has been on more of the offensive side in terms of getting off jabs, as Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy made interesting comments on Monday, and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark had some very specific comments about the Big 12's targets for further expansion. 

As reported by ESPN's Adam Rittenberg, when the former co-chief operating officer at Jay-Z’s Roc Nation was speaking to reporters while visiting future Big 12 member Cincinnati, he got extremely specific when it came to speaking about where the Big 12 wants to expand saying:

"Obviously, going out west is where I would like to go, entering that fourth time zone..." 

He continued with a "wish list" of what the Big 12 wants in its expansion candidates saying:

"A program that has national recognition, one that competes at the highest level in basketball and football, stands for the right things, is a good cultural fit."

Per usual, outside of the one time Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff fired back during Pac-12 Media Day, the Pac-12 did not publicly come out and address the comments. However, Pac-12 insider John Canzano was able to get a comment from an anonymous Pac-12 Athletic Director in the aforementioned "four corners" and they did not seem to appreciate Yormark's comments saying:

“I have no idea what he’s talking about. He just continues to throw stuff out to disrupt. Seems like some level of desperation.”

Based on Yormark's comments it seems he would be hinting at Arizona, Arizona State, and maybe even Utah. 

As it stands, both conferences elected to dive into discussions with ESPN and Fox regarding their media rights agreements, which are set to expire in 2024 for the Pac-12 and 2025 for the Big 12. It will be interesting moving forward to see if the Pac-12 will continue to remain silent and work behind the scenes as schools have been reaching out to them, or if they will fire back at the Big 12.