Neal Brown addresses new travel concerns with Big 12 additions

The Big 12 is going to look much different in a year when Cincinnati, UCF, Houston and BYU join the league. That means travel is going to change — and West Virginia coach Neal Brown acknowledged that at Big 12 Media Days this week.

When asked whether he thinks anything will change, Brown said he doesn’t think it’ll be impacted too much. While there will likely need to be some scheduling changes, at least when it comes to road night games, he doesn’t expect anything drastic to happen with travel arrangements for his group.

“It’s not for football,” Brown said. “I can only speak from a football perspective. The travel is not that big a deal. You’re going to do four games, four away games, and at least a couple trips to Texas each year. Some years you’re going to have five away games. But you’re talking about the difference between a two-hour flight and maybe a two-and-a-half-hour flight. We’re going to leave on Friday afternoon and get there Friday evening.

“The only thing that’s detrimental is sometimes if you play a night game on the road, in Lubbock or in Fort Worth, then you’re looking at a really early Sunday morning return. And so you’ve got to be careful how you handle that Sunday and Monday on the back end. Now, for Olympic sports, it’s a different story. But in football, it’s not as big an issue as maybe what it gets talked about.”

New commissioner Brett Yormark: ‘The Big 12 is open for business’

For the first time as commissioner, Brett Yormark faced questions at Big 12 Media Day. He will officially be replacing Bob Bowlsby on Aug. 1 but will have the opportunity to share his vision for the future of the conference.

During his opening comments, Yormark made his stance known of where the Big 12 stands in the frenzy that is college football realignment. He said the conference is “open for business” and his top goal as commissioner is to bring value.

“One thing is for sure: The Big 12 is open for business,” Yormark said. “We will leave no stone unturned to drive value for the conference.”

Yormark doubled down, saying the upcoming media deal is the most crucial aspect when discussing the future of the Big 12. He said nothing will be more important than making sure the conference positions itself correctly for upcoming negotiations.