Reason #638462 Yormark is a hack and the Big 12 sucks.

[Utah]

Ohio St vs Michigan.
Miss St vs Ole Miss
South Carolina vs Clemson
USC vs Notre Dame
Auburn vs Alabama
Florida vs Florida St
ASU vs Arizona

And we get f**king UCF.

What a joke.

With how awful our season has been, how fun would it be to play BYU to end the year?

Yormark is a dope.

[Jim McMahon]

I get that many of you hate the B12 but Yormark has actually been an awesome and very astute commissioner.

He is playing with house money with how he got the TV deal before the Pac 12 two years ago and basically made that conference collapse, allowing him to poach the four corner schools.

In regards to the holy war, us BYU fans would also love it to be the last game of the year, but he scheduled it for when he did hoping that it would draw more eyeballs without having to compete with all the other major games this week. Unfortunately, it was a very late start so it didn’t really matter.

Hopefully it is moved to the final game of the season in years to come, where it should be.

Why do you hate him?

[EagleMountainUte]

He gets credit for SC moving to the big 10? Ok. Sure. It is well documented that SC collapsed the conference with Oregon.

[Jim McMahon]

He definitely accelerated it. The conference may have always collapsed anyway, but he cut in line to secure a TV deal that sealed its fate.

https://www.si.com/college/usc/football/big-12-totally-out-maneuvered-pac-12-by-getting-early-media-right-deal-done

[Jim McMahon]

Here’s a better article on it.

Kliavkaff was a dope and overestimated. Even if the Pac 12 lost USC, Oregon, Washington, and UCLA, if it would have secured a TV deal first, it could have collapsed the big 12 and then poached the best remaining teams from there. The survivors of the Pac 12 and a few big 12 schools would have been a better conference than the current B12 from a pure brand perspective.

Yormark was one step ahead and cut in line and secured a deal for stability. I get that you guys hate this conference, but he has actually been an awesome commissioner by destroying the remnants of your conference and keeping the big 12 intact.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-08-16/pac-12-collapse-decisions-realignment-ucla-oregon#:~:text=The%20Pac%2D12’s%20math%20said,Ten%20for%20breaking%20its%20agreement.

[Dallas]

My high school shop teacher could have out maneuvered Larry Scott and his successor. The pac 12 had been mismanaged for a long time. Give credit where credit is due. Larry Scott and USC killed the pac.

[Jim McMahon]

The B12 lost Texas and Oklahoma and survived with lesser brands than the P12 would have been without USC. Give Yormark credit for outmaneuvering Kliakaff.

And I agree, the P12 has been mismanaged. But one of its biggest issues has been fan apathy. Cal, Stanford, and UCLA barely have fans at games. Its embarrassing. The B12 has survived because even though it’s a “truck stop” conference, it has passionate fan bases.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I agree McMahon. Yormark was aggressive and saved the Big 12. Kliakoff expected ESPN and Fox to cave in and give the Pac 12 the money they wanted. The west coast time zone doesn’t draw the eyeballs and especially when you take USC and Oregon out (similar to Ok and Texas).

It came down to who could get the first deal as it turned out. The Big 12 has some great history and loyal following. Face it without the blue bloods both conferences would mire in mediocrity. Without a blue blood program getting a second team in the playoffs will be hard.

BYU is thrilled to be in a P4 conference which they should be with their tradition in BB and FB. With Utah it’s slightly less than a lateral move. The Big 10 and Sec now have all the big tv draws. The four corner schools and ByU will get the fill in times (8:30) that nobody watches but the west coast in an east coast biased media.

[krindor]

I think this is an oversimplification to some extent. The Big 12 did well to jump ahead of the PAC. But they also had an easier time doing so.

To be blunt, the Big 12 had a bunch of unwanted leftovers who were going to be happy to take whatever decent deal they could get. If they couldn’t get a deal, then probably at least half that conference would be out of the power conference discussion.

The PAC had (as you mention) better brands. Which meant higher expectations and more willingness to take risk. For Oregon and Washington, the consequences of not getting a deal would be … promotion to a stronger conference. Arizona, ASU, Colorado, Utah in the worst case would be going to a parallel conference. And Stanford and Cal had some shot at the Big 10, but a fallback to the ACC. Almost everyone had nothing to lose by pushing for a bigger deal. Either they get it or they fail and go to an equivalent (or better) conference elsewhere.

The only real losers there were Oregon St, Washington St and George Kliavkoff

And that’s where my final note of caution comes in. When Larry Scott came in (2009) he was seen in much the same way Yormark is now. An outsider who was disrupting things and everything he touched turned to gold. Expanded the conference with two in-demand teams, added a CCG, created a conference network and catapulted the PAC to the top-payout conference. And he had multiple teams in the national title conversation each year.

Given that Scott was prematurely anointed as an incredible conference commissioner, I’ll reserve judgment on Yormark for now.

[China Rider]

Too bad Tulane lost today. I was really hoping the B12 was going to get skunked with the committee.

[Jim McMahon]

So much sour grapes on here haha.

[Roy Rangum]

I realize being better than Larry Scott and Kliavkoff is a low bar to clear, but Yormark is head and shoulders above them. Could he be better? Sure. But considering that he’s the best commissioner we’ve had in a long long time, I’m not overly eager to criticize him (at least not yet).

[AlohaUte]

I do wish we played either BYU or Colorado this weekend or even TCU. But it shouldn’t ever be some team on the East Coast who we have zero connection with.

[Jim McMahon]

We play too. It sucks. Hopefully they fix it.

[lgt4141]

If this season would have met expectations Or even if Utah had a winning record would Utah fans still hate the Big 12?

I ,for one, have no hate for the Big 12. I do miss playing USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and others but this is where we are at. It is still better than Oregon State and Washington State. There are passionate, engaged fan bases which is fun.

Utah still has the opportunity to be a top team in this conference. The best thing Utah can do is win. Hopefully that happens next year.

[Tony (admin)]

I don’t “hate” the big 12. But let’s not sugar coat it. We were driving a Porsche (BMW, Ferrari, or whatever high end car you like), and how we’re driving a 2005 Hyundai. They both get the job done, but there’s bound to be disappointment.

[CityCreekUte]

If this season would have met expectations Or even if Utah had a winning record would Utah fans still hate the Big 12?

With all of my heart. Outside of the 3 teams we came with I want to be associated with any of them from a football or overall athletics standpoint or an academic standpoint and least of all a cultural standpoint. I don’t mind a few schools, Kansas St, Iowa St but hate all of the Texas schools don’t have any connection to the ones on the other side of the country UCF, WVU and really irritated that we got into this s**thole after they replaced their best 2 brands with 4 mid majors. I’d rather be in with Cal Stanford OSU, WSU, ASU, Arizona and Colorado and mountain west teams. It would be a deeper, better, conference.

[Rick Walker]

Can we please stop acting like Oregon state and Wazzu don’t have fans? Those two teams both have fan bases on par at worst with most the big 12.

[China Rider]

Hate is a pretty strong word. I don’t much care for the B12 today or even previously. Born and raised in the upper midwest never much caring about the South West Conference or any of the Big iterations that followed. True in the yesterday and true today. It might seem a novelty to some here on the Wasatch but it really is as bland as oatmeal for breakfast.

[Uteanooga]

Given the cards he was dealt it looks to me like Yormark has come pretty close to maximizing his product. He took the B12 from the verge of collapse to 3rd-most-stable of conferences and apparently most stable outside the 2 dominant conferences. At least for now that is.

[utefansince79]

With lots of teams moving in/out last few years, making a schedule was somewhat tricky. I have the impressions the league wants to move the Holy War to this last weekend.

Also tricky that unlike the PAC12, we don’t have a lot of traditional rivalries. Really just have Utah/BYU, the Kansas and Zona schools. Was chatting with a TCU group on TRAX after that game and we were noting SMU is their big rival even though they haven’t been in the same conference for a long time.

[DataUte]

The Big 12 has long had the approach of spreading out rivalries through the later weeks of the season rather than pitting them in direct competition with each other and other league rivalries. In general, it’s a smart move.

With the expanded conference numbers, there are only 4 ‘protected’ rivalries in the Big 12 right now (that will be played every year) anyway: KU-KSU, TCU-Baylor, BYU-Utah, UA-ASU. Even KSU-ISU (farmageddon) and TCU-TT is not played every year. Most other matchups will be played 3 out of 4 years

[press-on]

Thanks Jim for your perspective. I believe you are spot on.

Kliavkoff was old school and reactionary. Probably viewed his mandate simply as one to negotiate a deal for the PAC 12. Didn’t see the landscape rapidly changing in college football all around him and I believe was naively broadsided by it all.

Yormark seems to be by contrast, aggressive and visionary. Understood the tenuous place the BIG 12 was in but held his ground waiting for the moment to pounce. And it worked. Presently is chipping away at the old ‘norms’ and looking for innovative ways to close the gap between the Big 2 and the BIG 12. Let’s give him some time. I’m sensing he has a long range plan and some short term tweaks on the clipboard. A BYU/UTAH matchup Thanksgiving weekend may be just one of those offerings that will play big on the national stage that he’s considering. Hope So!

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