KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Newly minted Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark has big plans for the conference, starting with a new scheduling format for future football seasons.
“We will not have divisions,” Yormark told a gaggle of reporters Tuesday at the league’s annual basketball tipoff media days held at the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Yormark: “I know media has said without Texas and Oklahoma our number would go down…Let me say it very clearly we’re not going backwards. We’re going up.”
— Aaron Ladd (@aaronladd0) October 18, 2022
“Over a two-year period, each of the teams will play each other,” he said.
The Big 12 had North and South divisions before four teams — Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M — left the conference. At the time, the Big 12 added only two schools, TCU and West Virginia, and did away with divisions because it only had 10 members schools.
Even when the membership swells to 12 again with the additions of BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston and the impending departures of Oklahoma and Texas, divisions will not return.
Yormark said the official schedule will be released in December.
The league's new commissioner, who took over for Bob Bowlsby on Aug. 1, said established rivalries between schools and a nine-game league schedule will remain under the new system.
“We’re open for business in every respect,” he said.
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