Brett Yormark to Step Down as Big 12 Commissioner After Transformative Tenure

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark is leaving the conference, a decision he made as he prepares to take another job outside of college sports, Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod told ESPN. Yormark approached Big 12 leadership about his decision nearly 10 days ago, and the conference’s board of directors formalized his departure terms Friday morning with a vote.

Yormark plans to remain in his role through January to ensure a smooth transition. He was the league’s fifth commissioner, and the Big 12 will launch a national search for a sixth.

An ‘Elegant Exit’ and a January Transition

Girod, who chairs the Big 12’s board of directors, told ESPN that Yormark approached the conference with a proposal to craft what he called an “elegant exit.” The two conversed about the decision over recent days before the board acted on the separation terms.

Girod summed up Yormark’s tenure succinctly: “He’s been really good for us.”

The Television Deal That Secured the Big 12’s Future

Yormark arrived at the Big 12 in 2022, taking over for Bob Bowlsby roughly a year after Oklahoma and Texas voted to leave for the SEC. His ability to navigate the conference to its current television deal will be his legacy, Girod said.

His signature move came soon after he took over, when he guided Big 12 leadership to exercise an option to renegotiate the league’s television agreement early. The Big 12 ultimately landed a strong deal with ESPN and FOX, outflanking the Pac-12, which was unable to secure a comparable media rights package.

“I think in all fairness, had he not joined us and convinced us to go early on redoing our television deal, we all believe we could have ended up like the Pac-12 did,” Girod told ESPN. “His leadership and experience and network in the media world has continued to be extremely beneficial for us.”

Reshaping the League Through Expansion

Beyond media rights, Yormark oversaw one of the most aggressive periods of conference expansion in recent memory. The Big 12 had already added BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF prior to his hire. Under his watch in 2023, the league added Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, bringing eight new schools into the fold alongside the league’s traditional members.

“He’s helped us integrate eight teams and build a strong culture with eight new folks along with the legacy eight,” Girod said. “That was no small undertaking either.”

The Search for a Sixth Commissioner Begins

The Big 12 had extended Yormark’s contract through 2030 as recently as May 2025. Upon his hiring, Yormark did not bring traditional college athletics experience, and that was precisely what the conference was looking for.

“We felt that we needed not the traditional former athletic director kind of leader,” Girod said. “We needed someone who innovated in this space and built brands in very strong ways.”

Girod noted with a chuckle that Yormark moved faster than college athletics typically does, including an ultimately unsuccessful push to add UConn that Big 12 leaders resisted. “If we had any issues early on, that was it. He was used to moving really fast,” Girod said.

Asked about the reasoning behind the departure, Girod said it came down to a simple premise: Yormark felt he had one good run left in him and had to decide whether to do it with the Big 12 or someone else.

What Comes Next for the Big 12

As for the future, Girod projected confidence that the conference can land a strong successor.

“I’m going in very open minded,” he said. “I don’t need a [Yormark] twin. I need someone who hopefully has some experience with campuses, and mostly is going to be an innovator and help us on that path of revenue diversification and thinking differently about how we conduct ourselves and be the tip of the spear in some of these changes.”

The departure leaves the Big 12 at a significant inflection point. Having stabilized its media rights and expanded its footprint, the conference must now find a leader who can balance Yormark’s dealmaking speed with the slower, consensus-driven culture of campus athletics. The national search for the sixth commissioner is underway, with Yormark remaining through January to help hand off the reins.

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