Brett Yormark: 'I don't wake up thinking about the Big Ten and the SEC'

This week, the Big Ten and SEC will meet to discuss some of the key issues around college athletics. The two conferences announced a joint advisory group earlier this year, and College Football Playoff entry is expected to be a topic of discussion in Nashville.

As the two leagues get together, the Big 12 and the ACC sit on the outside looking in. But, as he told Front Office Sports’ Amanda Christovich, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is keeping his focus on his conference.

Yormark said his goal it to make the Big 12 as strong as possible and he doesn’t worry much about what the Big Ten or SEC are doing. Although he’s seen the reporting about the upcoming meeting, Yormark is trying to keep his eye on the ball.

“I don’t wake up thinking about the Big Ten and the SEC,” Yormark told FOS. “I really focus on—how does the Big 12 become the best version of itself? If we do that, we’ll take care of business in the right way.

“Obviously, it’s received a bit of press, but—not focused on it. Really.”

Brett Yormark has long kept his focus on the Big 12 since the Big Ten and SEC announced their joint advisory group. He called the partnership “overstated” over the summer as he looked to keep building the Big 12, but noted the “chemistry” between the Power 4 conferences was strong as ever.

The Big Ten and SEC are viewed as the most powerful in college sports thanks to lucrative media rights deals and realignment moves. But when looking at college athletics as a whole, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti stressed the importance of working with other the Power 4 conferences to chart a path forward. However, he also pointed out the issues facing the Big Ten and SEC as reasons they will have to work together considering their similar circumstances.

“There are a lot of challenges that we face together,” Petitti said at Big Ten basketball media days. “It doesn’t mean we don’t do things with others in the A4 across and the NCAA, as well, but just there’s a lot of commonality in terms of the challenges we face and what we think the opportunities are. So it just leads to a very close working relationship to try and get some things done.”