Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark refutes report of him meeting with Memphis officials

The college football world has been abuzz for the past 24 hours with a report of Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark meeting with Memphis officials to gauge interest in a possible move to the Big 12, but Yormark came out refuting the accuracy of that report on Friday night.

Speaking to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Yormark left no uncertainty about the situation.

“I’ve never met with anyone at Memphis about adding them to the Big 12, nor have I been on campus,” Yormark said, according to Thamel.

The original report came from CollegeAD, claiming that a Big 12 contingent that included Yormark flew into Memphis and conducted an ‘under the radar’ campus visit to see various facilities on campus, while meeting with city officials and a few of the school’s regents.

Various other entities reported out smaller details of the alleged trip, but Yormark’s presence was hotly debated as it would lend an air of gravitas to the discussion.

Conference realignment has been a major topic of conversation this offseason in college football, ahead of the much-anticipated additions of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten and of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC.

The Pac-12 remains in negotiations with potential TV partners about a deal that could keep the conference intact long-term, but to this point nothing has been finalized. With all of that as a backdrop, leagues like the Big 12 would presumably be wise to keep ears to the ground and vet potential additions in the event the realignment carousel spins up again.

But for now, it appears that due diligence did not extend to Brett Yormark meeting with Memphis officials.

Memphis has previously been a subject of acquisition interest by conferences higher up the food chain than the AAC. Former AAC members Cincinnati, Houston and UCF have already been called up to the Big 12. Memphis was also in the discussion to make that move in the last round of conference realignment, but the Tigers were not selected.

As a program, the Tigers are putting some significant financial backing behind things. Liberty Stadium has been pegged for upgrades, with the State General Assembly putting $350 million toward a project that would also include renovations to FedEx Forum.

Other schools that have been talked about as potential Big 12 additions include Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, San Diego State, UConn and UNLV.