Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark makes surprising career move - USA Today
A man who has become one of the most visible faces in college sports is leaving his position.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is vacating his role, the conference confirmed on Friday, Oct. 30, with a report from ESPN adding that he's preparing to take a job outside of college sports.
In a statement, the Big 12 said Yormark will be stepping down effective Jan. 31, 2027 and that a national search by the Big 12 board of directors for his successor will begin immediately.
"When I accepted this job, my goal was to put this conference on an upward trajectory and truly believe the future of the conference could not be in better shape,” Yormark said in a statement. “The next commissioner of this league will inherit a conference that is ‘16 Strong.’ There has never been a better time to be a member of the Big 12 than right now.”
Yormark had led the Big 12 since Aug. 2022 after spending the previous three years as the CEO and president of Roc Nation, an American entertainment company founded by Jay-Z.
He oversaw the conference during a time of significant change in the broader world of college sports and helped the league secure a six-year media rights deal with ESPN and Fox Sports worth about $2.3 billion. The contract came together after Yormark convinced the networks to open an exclusive negotiating window early and help the conference get a deal done before the Pac-12, which was on similarly shaky footing at the time.
Yormark was also instrumental in helping the league navigate conference realignment. He was commissioner when the Big 12 plucked Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to help bring the conference's membership to 16 and effectively kill the Pac-12 as a power conference. The Big 12 had already voted to accept adding Houston, Cincinnati, BYU and Central Florida when he was hired, though that trio joined the conference by the time he was commissioner.
The 60-year-old Yormark, who hadn't previously worked in college sports upon joining the Big 12, was also the catalyst for some more unorthodox initiatives. He launched a partnership with the WWE that included the winner of the Big 12 championship game being presented with a WWE title belt. In 2023, he helped jumpstart Big 12 Mexico, an initiative that would involve Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer and baseball games held in Mexico. More recently, and perhaps most notably, he formalized a sponsorship deal with Monster Energy that includes the energy drink brand's logo appearing on jersey patches and on the courts and fields of Big 12 members next to the conference's mark.
His contract with the Big 12 had been set to run through 2030 thanks to an extension the New Jersey native signed in 2025.
“Speaking on behalf of all of the Big 12 Presidents, we thank Brett for shepherding this great conference through an extraordinary period in college athletics,” Kansas chancellor and chair of the Big 12 board of directors Doug Girod said in a statement. “When Brett arrived, we were at a crossroads in the Big 12 and as a college sports enterprise. Brett’s vision, business acumen, and confidence put us on the path we find ourselves on today. He leveraged traditional and non-traditional avenues in the college space, solidifying the Big 12 Conference’s future. We are appreciative of his leadership, wish he and his family well, and look forward to building upon the strong foundation he helped put in place.”
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