Do Big 12 commissioner’s brazen remarks all but confirm they are out to get Texas and OU?
Having secured the future of the Big 12 for the foreseeable future, Brett Yormark can do, and say, whatever he wants.
He decided to take that power for a test drive this week, not on a private road course, but rather in public, within range of a camera phone.
The Big 12 commissioner was in Lubbock on Wednesday attending the annual Red Raider kickoff luncheon at the Memorial Civic Center, where he was the guest of honor.
He told the audience of about 1,200 people, “Candidly, we were able to get Texas and Oklahoma out (of the Big 12) a year early. That was a big deal for us and I thank all of you,” Yormark said. “And coach (Joey McGuire), I’m not going to put any pressure on you, but I’m going to be in Austin for Thanksgiving, OK?
“And you’d better take care of business like you did right here in Lubbock last year.”
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
Because they are.
The Big 12 commissioner just said it.
Texas Tech defeated Texas last year in football, and will play the Lame Horns in Austin on November 24, their last football game since they joined as conference rivals in 1960.
Yormark was just having some fun, playing to the crowd, but of the many levers to pull “Insane Paranoia” should remain untouched.
Yormark has every right to have professional fun with both Texas and Oklahoma this entire school year, and beyond; the schools no longer want to be in the Big 12, and Yormark’s responsibility is to the conference members that want to be a part of this league.
A Big 12 media relations person has not returned a request to see if Yormark wants to clarify his comments.
Also, the last thing he should do is to add an Amazon truck of Stupid to college football fans.
The person could hold a PhD from Oxford, but once a college football game is involved all reason and logic are immediately suspended in favor of Area 51-level paranoia and rhetoric.
Since Texas and Oklahoma announced in August of 2022 that they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC, their fan bases have stockpiled crazy pills; they are sure their respective teams will get the shaft, repeatedly, this season.
Yormark’s comments all but confirmed that the Boogey man isn’t in your head. It’s real.
Unlike the UFO that our eyes cannot confirm, and our government will not, the evil culprit will be wearing a black and white striped uniform, in full view of 80,000 to 104,000 fans, and a television audience.
Yormark’s comments, even in jest, will be taken as a sign that he’s telling the Big 12 officials to make sure to “give it to” Texas and Oklahoma.
The last group in the world that needs any help in convincing they are terrible at their jobs are sports referees.
During Big 12 Media Days in July, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione made a surprise appearance, and visited with some of us corporate, mainstream media folks.
I asked him, “When a team leaves a conference, there is a fear that they will get the short end of the stick in some instances, do you prepare for it, or is that more myth than reality?”
His response: “That’s such a broad question, but it can be both. Certainly we don’t feel that, or sense that, from anybody that we’ve worked with by any (Big 12) school, or within the league.”
If Castiglione didn’t “feel that, or sense that” from anybody within the Big 12, he should now.
All Yormark did was to make his life a little harder this fall.
When that holding call goes against Texas, or after Oklahoma is penalized 18 times for 144 yards compared to the three times for 12 yards for Iowa State, everything Burnt Orange and all things Crimson and White will howl that this injustice is at the order of King Yormark.
After securing Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to the Big 12, Yormark is King of the Big 12. He can do, and say, whatever he wants.
Doesn’t mean he should.
Because know we now The Boogeyman is real, and it’s coming to get Bevo and Boomer.
