Brett Yormark’s Media Days Performance
First off, way too much filler. Too much wasted time up there between awards and just stuff nobody really cares about. At times it felt like I was watching a commercial instead of our conference commissioner up there.
To not jump ahead of the Brendan Sorsby thing and not address the elephant in the room was not the right decision to me. And then the first question he gets asked is about Sorsby, he just says thanks for the question but now is not the right time to address that issue.
Well, Brett, when is the time? Middle of the season? Big 12 title game when Tech is there? Tell me because you only host media days once a year and every school is there so why not?
Then we must get to the question of all questions, maybe the best and worst question I have ever seen at media days from Texas Tech media personality Sean Dillon.
Dillon’s question began with a reminder of tortilla ban. He then noted that Oklahoma State had a tradition of paddling the stadium walls that hasn’t been banned.
Then brought up Sorsby and how the conference sued the school but hasn’t taken legal action against Big 12 member Cincinnati, where Sorsby previously played and may have known about his gambling. He then asked Yormark what Texas Tech fans should think of previous comments about the league being “greater than 12” while promoting the league’s 16 teams, even as he sued one of its members.
We got to start with how the question was asked because it was awful. It felt like he tried and put Yormark in a corner and have that gotcha moment and it was poorly worded, felt like he was reading just thoughts on a piece of paper and never turned it into a good question.
As a fellow Texan, the way he said tortillas was the worst part but then it just kept getting worse. Comparing the Oklahoma State paddles to tortillas was apples and oranges to me. Last time I checked, paddles aren’t being thrown onto the field in Stillwater.
Now I do think if he had asked the Cincinnati part of that question correctly, it would have felt a whole lot better and looked a lot better. But he didn’t. and the way Yormark handled it wasn’t great. And I know he said he wouldn’t talk about Sorsby so brining him up again was certainly a choice but when Yormark walked over to him and told him to stand up and ask the question again made It seem like a “what did you just say to me?” type of feel to it.
And then to make him stand up and repeat that awful question just to not even bother to answer it was a bad look. It was a bad look for Texas Tech, media days and Brett Yormark which is odd because I have seen him over the years and he usually is great at these things and it just seemed like he lacked that confidence on Tuesday morning and was just giving corporate answers all day long.
Monster Deal
Some people are going to love this and that’s fine, if you like Monster, great. But the traditionalist in me says that this is all wrong but at some point, we all just have to accept the fact that this is where we are in college athletics today. It’s all money driven and we are at mercy of the almighty dollar.
If Big Ten teams can do it then so can the Big 12 for extra cash and before long the jerseys and fields may look like a car in NASCAR with sponsor logos from top to bottom. But for getting monster, I am not in love with the deal.
So, you are telling me that Monster paid just 20 million, for every Big 12 football, men’s, and women’s basketball teams, that they get a space on the jersey? And on the field and on the courts themselves. that’s a total of 48 different jerseys between the three groups.
Each school gets around 800k after the Big 12 gets their cut? That’s a little over 265k for the football, men’s, and women’s basketball team each. To me, that seems cheap. There are sponsors out there that would pay 5-10 million for just one school for that kind of real estate.
For that cheap, could a guy like Cody Campbell just throw 25 million or 30 to the Big 12 and say put my name or business on it? It just seems like if you were going to do this and whore yourself out then at least get more money than what they got. This is a great deal for Monster, not so much for the Big 12.
And to be honest, Brett Yormark hasn’t exactly had a great 2026 so far. The whole global takeover, trying to have games in Mexico was a bust, and the glass court, and the Tech thing, and then his performance at Media Days including the Monster Deal for pennies.
I am not saying he’s a bad commissioner, I think he’s still the right man for the job, but these last few months haven’t been all sunshine and rainbows. And I get it, it’s a tough job in today’s climate of college athletics but damn, things haven’t gone all that smoothly for him this year.
