Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark Denies Meeting With Memphis
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark on Friday refuted a report that he met with University of Memphis officials earlier this week.
Yormark spoke to ESPN’s Pete Thamel about the meeting, which was reported widely in the Memphis media.
He refuted it in no uncertain terms.
“I’ve never met with anyone at Memphis about adding them to the Big 12, nor have I been on campus,” Yormark told ESPN.
Earlier this week College AD reported that Yormark and a small group of Big 12 officials made what was called an “under-the-radar” visit to the campus, where they toured facilities and met with both university and city officials.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal contacted university officials, who did not respond to a request for comment.
Memphis has applied for Big 12 membership before. The Tigers were part of a group of schools who applied to the Big 12 when it had an open expansion process. At the time, the Big 12 opted not to expand at all.
The Tigers are members of the American Athletic Conference. Three of their AAC members — Cincinnati, UCF and Houston — are joining the Big 12 on July 1. So is BYU, which is an independent in football and in the West Coast Conference for most other sports.
The Big 12 will be 14 members for the 2023-24 athletic year. After that, Oklahoma and Texas will move to the Southeastern Conference. The Sooners’ and Longhorns’ move to the SEC, announced in 2021, triggered a raft of realignment changes throughout Division I sports.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
