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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Big 12 Conference has yet to release a football schedule for the 2023 season. But the league’s commissioner gave a glimpse into what it will look like.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, while speaking with reporters at the league’s women’s basketball media day at the T-Mobile Center on Tuesday, said the upcoming schedule will preserve rivalries and will not include divisions.
The 2023 schedule, which could come as soon as early November, according to Yormark, will include a nine-game league slate with all Big 12 teams playing each other at least once over a two-year period.
“I’m excited about what it’ll look like,” Yorkmark said.
It’s a brief preview of what the conference will look like, at least in the short term with BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF slated to join the league for the 2023 season. That’ll turn the Big 12 into a 14-team league for now, with Texas and Oklahoma still a part of the conference.
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Those two teams already have plans to head to the SEC and are rumored to have been looking for an early exit. But Yormark, who said he has a good relationship with both schools, anticipates both staying in the league through 2025.
“They’ve committed themselves in advance of me getting here and they’ve reiterated that commitment,” Yormark said. “So, they’ll be here through the duration.”
So Yormark, and the rest of the league, is planning for life with the Longhorns and Sooners still a part of it in the meantime. With 14 teams in the conference, that means the end of the current round-robin schedule in football.
“Looking at geography obviously from a student-athlete perspective and travel so all those principals are part of the decision making but we’ll end up in a great place,” Yormark said.
But the work is far from done for the everchanging league and its new leader. Yorkmark, who said during the league’s football media days that the Big 12 was “open for business,” reiterated that when it came to possible expansion. He’s also working on extending the league’s media rights agreement with FOX and ESPN, which expires in June of 2024.
Yormark said Tuesday that talks with both parties have already begun. The exclusive negotiating window between the conference and the two networks doesn’t open until February 2024. But Yormark said preliminary discussions have already gone well.
“Everyone’s motivated,” Yorkmark said. “The question is can we get to a deal and I have some parameters in place that I’m looking for and we’ll see if we can get there. If we can’t, we’ll wait 16 months and then ultimately go after that exclusive negotiation period. My gut tells me we get something done before that.
“Very optimistic.”
Reach Tommy Birch at tbir[email protected] or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.
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