Heading into his third Big 12 Tournament as commissioner, Brett Yormark has helped grow the Big 12 brand in popularity and has helped maintain what is known as the best basketball tournament in the country.
Yormark met with the media on Tuesday before the 2025 Basketball Tournament and discussed several topics of interest before tip-off. Naturally, one of those topics was expansion, as the current age of college athletics demands that conferences constantly look for ways to get ahead or get left behind.
While he was hesitant to say “never,” Yormark did say that he loves where the league is right now.
“I love 16 teams. I love where we are,” Yormark said. “Expansion isn’t something that’s on my radar right now, for obvious reasons, but this is an evolving landscape in collegiate athletics. We always have to be ready, so I can’t sit here and say we’ll be at 16 for the next 10 years. It’ll all depend on the nuances in and around the Big 12. But, I love 16.”
Sure, it’s a boilerplate statement from the Big 12’s top executive, but Yormark’s quote does open up the way that we look at sports right now.
July 1 will make it a calendar year since the Big 12 officially became a 16-team conference, and for now, it appears that they’ll move on to Year No. 2 with that being the case as well.
