BIG 12 Preparing to MOVE ON From ESPN & FOX?! But How?!

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]So, the Big 12's next move could be all about the television contract. I'm Pete Mundo. We're Heartland College Sports and we are so glad you're here joining us as always as a part of the show.

[00:00:13]Whether you're on YouTube, the podcast, thanks for joining us and thanks as always for being here. So, you probably saw the news this week that the Big 12 conference landed a multi-billion dollar private equity deal with this company RedBird. And you're probably like, "What's this all about?" Well, two things. One is cash infusion for the schools, but the other part of this is about the next TV contract for the Big 12 come 2031. Brett Yormark is already thinking about that next step.

[00:00:50]And the reason that this matters, the reason that all this is intertwined, is because this group, RedBird, this private equity firm that the Big 12 got in bed with here and became official this week, is a part owner in Paramount. And Paramount, if you're not a media person, owns CBS and owns TNT.

[00:01:14]And that means that the Big 12, which already is in bed with TNT, they've got that one football game or a couple of football games a year, this is now a scenario for the Big 12 conference where they can be looking at 2031 and saying, "Wait, we've already got a deal with this private equity company that has stake in Paramount, which owns CBS and TNT.

[00:01:39]There you go.

[00:01:41]That's it right there. That's how Brett Yormark is playing 3D chess where these other commissioners, don't get me wrong, the SEC and the Big 10 are printing money, but Brett Yormark's got to think in a different way.

[00:01:55]The Big 12 is not the SEC. The Big 12's not the Big 10. What can he do to leverage? First off, he can get this cash infusion for these teams and he's certainly going to get that for these teams with this RedBird private equity deal, no doubt about it. $500 million infusion of cash for the conference and its members.

[00:02:15]The schools have access to about 30 million cash per team and the league office would get about $25 million to fund a new equity or entity called Big 12 Properties. So, this would all be under an umbrella of a new spin-off called College Athletic Solutions. But for Yormark, he's clearly thinking about life beyond ESPN and life beyond Fox.

[00:02:41]And let me just say for the record, I'm so ready for it. I I'm so ready for that next step for the Big 12. I'm ready to be done. I'm ready to move on.

[00:02:54]I'm ready to say goodbye to ESPN. I'm sick of the BS. I'm sick of Herb Street.

[00:02:59]I'm sick of all of it. I'm sick of Game Day screwing the league. I'm I'm I'm sick of Game Day then coming to the Big 12 and doing two weeks in a row and wanting a slap on the back. I'm sick of the Big 12 not being able to say, "You know what?

[00:03:15]ESPN, I know that you're in the SEC's pants, but can you show us a little bit of love?" I'm sick of all of it on behalf of the Big 12. And Brett Yormark can't say it. He's got to be a company guy.

[00:03:28]They're still a partner. I can say it.

[00:03:31]You can say it.

[00:03:32]You can comment on it on the show, but I get it. He can't. He just can't go there.

[00:03:39]And you know what? We can. And the closer we get to that 2031 deal, the more I am looking forward to the possibility, and I would say the growing possibility, of the Big 12 just sticking the bird up to ESPN and maybe Fox as well and saying, "We got CBS.

[00:03:57]We got TNT. We got a good thing going with these two operations. Let's see what we can do." I know that CBS is still kind of in bed with the Big 10 and they've got their own deal right now. But to me, Brett Yormark is looking ahead. He's trying to figure out what's next and it's a very smart move by the Big 12 commissioner.

[00:04:17]Because what the Big 12 did brilliantly going back a couple of years, if if you were maybe new to the show, and we'd love for you to hang around and make sure you're subscribed, but if you go back a couple of years to when the Pac-12 fell apart, what Brett Yormark did when history tells the story here, what Brett Yormark did very effectively, is he got the Big 12 a new TV contract before the Pac-12.

[00:04:44]The Pac-12 was playing hardball. The Pac-12 thought it was too good. The Pac-12 overplayed its hand.

[00:04:51]And Brett Yormark said, "We'll get to the marketplace first." Even though it was the Pac-12's turn to sign a new contract, they got their new deal done.

[00:04:59]They beat them to market and then the Pac-12 collapsed.

[00:05:03]That's what happened.

[00:05:05]And that's going back what, three years ago now, I guess, give or take. And that changed college sports as we know it.

[00:05:13]The Big 12 survived. Pieces went off to the Big 10. Some went off to the Big 12.

[00:05:19]Some didn't make it. Couple went to the ACC.

[00:05:22]But the Big 12 found itself in a position to be the third of the power four conferences because of what Brett Yormark did with the TV contract.

[00:05:31]Yormark's a media guy.

[00:05:33]That's why the Big 12 presidents were attracted to him.

[00:05:38]He was not your run-of-the-mill college sports athletic director guy. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I know we have some ADs who watch and listen.

[00:05:45]Nothing wrong with it, but Yormark was a professional sports and media guy.

[00:05:51]He understood the landscape better than anyone in, you know, traditional college sports environments would would be able to handle it.

[00:06:01]It's not a knock on David Boren. Not a knock on uh Dan Boren. Not a knock on Bob Bowlsby. Not a knock on anybody.

[00:06:07]It's just Yormark had that vision. He had that institutional knowledge on these things that most guys in his position at the time would not have.

[00:06:18]Now, you're starting to see these conference commissioners be savvier media people because there's billions of dollars at stake.

[00:06:25]And I think part of this private equity deal for the Big 12 was looking to the next TV contract because there's a bunch of private equity firms out there. It didn't have to be RedBird. Could have been any of them.

[00:06:36]But for Yormark, he's looking at it and saying, "Okay, I don't just need the cash infusion now.

[00:06:43]I need to look at this as a five to 10-year plan where there's value in this RedBird Capital today, tomorrow, next year, and in half a decade potentially. And that's part of why this move was made.

[00:06:58]And it's it's a smart move because the Big 12 has been left behind.

[00:07:04]Fox loves the Big 10. ESPN loves the SEC. The Big 12 kind of fits in with both. But if you think the Big 12's getting screwed right now, I'm here to tell you it's not going to get any better.

[00:07:17]It's only going to get worse.

[00:07:20]As the gap grows with the power two, Yormark's looking around and saying, "Where can I basically get my own network deal that can challenge the power two?"

[00:07:31]And CBS combined with TNT, owned by Paramount, is as good a bet as any right now.

[00:07:39]Now, it doesn't mean that CBS is going to get out of the business of doing, you know, games for the Big 10, but as we look ahead to the 2030s, that's where this needs to all go. And that's where Yormark is saying, "Is there a network that we can compete with on a grand scale to touch what ESPN will do for the SEC and what Fox will do for the Big 10?"

[00:08:02]And CBS is an obvious choice. I would not go streaming. I I just I I I know that Duke signed a deal with Amazon. If you didn't see that, yeah, Duke's got a deal with Amazon now. So, I think we're trending there. But the Big 12 still needs casual eyeballs. I think it's critically important for the Big 12 to get the casual eyeball.

[00:08:28]I don't think you can go straight to a streaming service, straight to an Amazon, uh straight to a, you know, whoever, a Netflix. I I wouldn't do it. I think you'll get forgotten.

[00:08:39]Part of live sports' value is still just being able to flip on a game and say, "Oh, look, that's a close game. I'll watch it." It can't just be all destination programming.

[00:08:50]The NFL knows that. Like the NFL, yes, has the Amazon deal and unless you're a die-hard fan of the two teams or you just love the NFL, yeah, you'll go find the game on Amazon, right? But the pain-in-the-butt part of these streaming deals is that if you're in the Amazon Prime app, you can't just like go watch another game during a commercial if you get bored.

[00:09:11]You got to sit there in the Amazon app.

[00:09:14]You have to specifically seek out that game on the Amazon app and know you're not going anywhere else.

[00:09:21]The NFL can get away with that and they only do it one game a week.

[00:09:26]Big 12, forget it. That would be suicide. So, that's where Yormark's thinking, "Who's my TV partner that just gives me broad, general exposure?"

[00:09:36]Knowing that Fox and ESPN are taken up.

[00:09:38]And the obvious choice there would then be CBS because of the TNT relationship as well. NBC is an option, but NBC also has uh just Peacock. Like they don't have another channel that or they they got a couple, but I I just think that CBS has been in the college football game in the college sports game uh much longer than NBC.

[00:10:01]So, I would I would pursue that and it seems like that's exactly what Brett Yormark is doing and it's really really smart.

[00:10:09]So, know what's going on here behind the scenes.

[00:10:12]Now, that being said hang on.

[00:10:17]My phone dropped here.

[00:10:19]If you didn't see this and I was worried this was going to happen um you had a member of Congress call out the Big 12.

[00:10:29]You can't make this stuff up, man. You really can't. But yeah, you had a uh Congress member out in Washington state call out the Big 12. I know. We're we're in some pretty stupid times.

[00:10:39]>> [snorts] >> And his name is Michael Baumgartner.

[00:10:45]And he said, "Dear Big 12 schools in reaction to the deal with RedBird Capital." Uh RedBird Capital.

[00:10:56]He writes, "Dear Big 12 schools, do you want to get in bed with profit-seeking private equity? You better be ready for Congress to treat your tax status like it."

[00:11:08]That's from a Congress member in Washington state.

[00:11:13]Now, maybe maybe this guy is still a little upset that his Pac-12 collapsed. But you know what?

[00:11:22]He should look at his own state and his own university Washington and how Oregon and them partnered and bailed on the Pac-12. Don't be mad at the Big 12.

[00:11:32]That being said, this is an inevitable consequence it does seem to some degree.

[00:11:38]Okay? There's no doubt about it. This was bound to happen. Somebody was going to try to make this move. Once the Big 12 is announcing it's going to private equity.

[00:11:48]But you know what?

[00:11:51]You could say that about any of these schools. How do any of them at this point have tax-exempt status? Seriously.

[00:11:58]I mean, look at any of these schools and say to yourself or these conferences at this point and say, "What are we really doing here with the tax-exempt status on these college sports conferences?" It's not 1962 anymore, okay? It's just not.

[00:12:12]So, that's where it's a lot of smoke. Okay, these members of Congress don't do squat. They don't They talk a big game. They don't do anything on either side of the political aisle. They're just worthless.

[00:12:24]But yeah, I would just say this smoke will linger a little bit. And I think it's the start of a conversation as to how we treat college sports around the country and at the federal level.

[00:12:37]So, um couple other things I did want to touch on here on the show with you. So, if you didn't listen to it or watch it, Mike Craven, Dave Campbell's Texas Football was on the show with me the other day. And he was outstanding as you would expect. We talked a lot about the Big 12 schools in Texas because obviously that's what he covers. And one school in particular just had me spinning my wheels over the last couple of days since my conversation with Mike.

[00:13:04]And it was the TCU Horned Frogs.

[00:13:07]Now TCU is one of these teams that they'll get their seven, eight, nine wins. They have the last, you know, couple of years under Sonny Dykes. They've been in the national championship game. But I can't help but think that TCU's either got to have a really big season where they take that next step or or Sonny Dykes got his contract extension.

[00:13:30]So, obviously they're comfortable with him.

[00:13:33]But I really would like to see TCU make that next step and and be competitive atop the Big 12 again. And one thing that Mike mentioned is that what TCU is doing is a little bit different. They're leaning more heavily on the high school recruiting scene than the college recruiting scene. And whatever, that's fine. Um that's their prerogative. But I was looking back and I forgot that they had the best Big 12 recruiting class at the high school level in the class of 2025.

[00:14:02]Number one in the Big 12. I guarantee you if you were to pull people on the street corner about which Big 12 team had the best recruiting class in 2025 out of the high school ranks the odds of people guessing TCU probably would have been very low.

[00:14:15]But they did according to 24/7.

[00:14:18]So, now I'm thinking, "Okay, those guys are going to be rising true sophomores.

[00:14:22]It's time for some of them to to see the field and step up."

[00:14:27]Whether it's Terry Shelton, the wide receiver Carrollton, Texas.

[00:14:31]Chad Woodford edge rusher, Humble, Texas.

[00:14:36]Um Adam Schobel's a quarterback in that class. He was a four-star guy to Columbus, Texas.

[00:14:42]I you know, I don't think we'll see him because they seem to have their quarterback in Jaden Craig transfer from Harvard of all places. But you know what? You are rolling the dice on a Harvard quarterback at the Power 4 level. So, maybe if you're Sonny Dykes, you feel like a guy like Schobel might be able to play a little bit in his second year on campus.

[00:15:02]I I don't know.

[00:15:04]But Craven made it clear, "Hey, these guys are trying to basically do it through the high school ranks while everybody else is hitting the portal. And then if they can develop these guys, they can get them on a hometown discount and get them to stay."

[00:15:18]It's a good strategy when you have all the talent you could possibly need within like an hour hour and a half drive. Heck, it might be a 30-minute drive. You've got all the talent you need. But you got to get them in.

[00:15:30]You have to develop them.

[00:15:31]You have to know that you're going to have a younger team than most years. And then if you do develop them, you got to make sure you get a hometown discount and you retain them.

[00:15:42]And that's easier said than done. I mean, we're seeing it right now play out with the basketball guys. Flo Thamba Kansas big man, he comes back. He has a very good season. But you know what? He hits the portal and it just takes one team to give him stupid money. And Louisville gave him apparently 5 million bucks. Flo Thamba is not a $5 million player.

[00:16:04]Probably a $3 million player. And maybe more like two and a half. I don't know.

[00:16:07]Two to three is where I would put Flo Thamba.

[00:16:10]But if someone's going to give you stupid money you're going to go. And that's where TCU, you know, could be in trouble where if they do develop this great class or this goes for anybody in the Big 12. You might get a hometown discount, but it just takes one team to throw out a stupid number and your whole plans are thrown out the window. You can make the case that this happened at Cincinnati with Brendan Sorsby. He was their guy to develop him. Now, he went to Indiana first, but you get the point. He made his name at Cincinnati. And I don't know. I've not heard what Satterfield put on the table for him.

[00:16:45]But obviously Cincinnati wanted him back.

[00:16:49]But when Tech throws 5 million at you according to reports you going to turn that down if it's double what you would have gotten? How good of a discount are you going to give the hometown team?

[00:17:00]So, it's a risky strategy, but I respect Sonny Dykes zigging when everybody else is zagging. I really do.

[00:17:08]So, then I went back and I looked at the 2025 recruiting classes in the Big 12.

[00:17:12]So, this would have been obviously 1 year ago. Right now, the '26 class is done obviously and people are looking ahead to the '27 class.

[00:17:21]But in the '25 class if I asked you name the top three teams in the 24/7 sports rankings for high school recruiting who would you have said were the top three?

[00:17:37]I guarantee you you would have not given me TCU Kansas State and Baylor followed by Colorado.

[00:17:49]There's your top four for high school recruiting in the class of 2025 in the Big 12.

[00:17:54]Sonny Dykes then Chris Klieman, he's gone.

[00:17:58]Dave Aranda, red-hot seat. And Deion Sanders who just won a couple of games this past season.

[00:18:05]Now, these guys obviously were all true freshmen this past season. So, you can't really look at that angle of it and say, "Well, they were all busts." That's not true. They were all high school high school players and you know, redshirting and just kind of learning their way through college. That's how it goes now.

[00:18:22]But it's really interesting looking back on 2025 and being like, "Wow."

[00:18:28]These guys these teams in particular that did the best in the recruiting rankings were uh not really in a great position last year at all. Only TCU was kind of in a good position. And you go on down the list, Texas Tech was 10th in the class of '25.

[00:18:47]Houston was 12th. Iowa State 13th.

[00:18:50]Um Arizona State was seventh.

[00:18:53]So, that's just that's just kind of how it went last year. Kansas and UCF were at the bottom for what it's worth. So, I just I thought that was really interesting because hopefully for those top teams like Baylor, you you think a team like Baylor is desperate for one of these guys couple of these guys to pop from that 2025 class that was, you know, third best in the Big 12.

[00:19:17]Boy, are they going to need it. And they're going to need it desperately.

[00:19:22]And as soon as possible.

[00:19:25]So, it's going to be a lot of fun to follow. I can't wait. I'm going to be digging into some of the football stuff here in the weeks ahead. Uh hope you'll join us. Hope you'll stay. Hope you will subscribe to the channel. And let me know what you need more of, all right?

[00:19:36]Um we're going to get more content rolling here through the off-season. Just be here on the channel.

[00:19:43]Please do subscribe to the podcast or the YouTube channel. And we will be doing plenty of things that you want.

[00:19:50]And let me know what you want more of as well. Interviews, different sports, just tell me. We'll get to it all. And we're going to get back to Kendall Rogers here soon of D1 Baseball talking some Big 12.

[00:20:00]We're going down the home stretch and it's going to be a heck of a close to the Big 12 baseball season. I'm Pete Mundo Heartland College Sports.

[00:20:06]Subscribe guys, we appreciate you and we'll talk to you soon. Go Big 12.