Brett Yormark has big goals for expanding and updating the Big 12 Conference’s brand.

The newly appointed commissioner has plenty of experience in this arena from his time at Nascar going from a predominantly southern based sport to a national one as well as what he helped to accomplish during his time with the Brooklyn Nets to move that franchise and turn it into a global brand.

“My goal is to do something similar here,” he said.

Yormark wants to try to transform the Big 12 Conference from a national perspective in terms of branding and as well as appealing to a younger crowd.

“We have a chance to build our brand, our business, nationalize our conference in a way it hasn’t been done before. I’m excited to go to work and start that process,” he said.

Yormark has a unique perspective considering he came to the league from Roc Nation, where he served as chief operating officer and co-CEO of Roc Nation Unified, the commercial side of the business. That gives him an understanding of things from the business side when it comes to modernizing things.

It’s a different approach from the traditional commissioner with a background in college athletics, but it’s one that should help the league propel itself forward in a tumultuous time across the landscape.

The commissioner believes that there are opportunities for the league to become younger, hipper and cooler when it comes to connecting and diversifying some of the things that they have been doing.

That means using social media differently to engage with fans as well as using content to help with story telling and focusing on what is truly important.

“There’s an opportunity to nationalize this brand and be more aspirational. Appeal to youth culture, get younger and hipper,” he said. “Those are the things I’ll be working on.”

Yormark believes there is incredible upside in the Big 12 as a whole which is a big reason why he elected to pursue the opportunity to be the commissioner.

The conference will be undergoing some changes in the coming years with Texas and Oklahoma set to depart the league in 2025, while Cincinnati, BYU, Central Florida and Houston will join in time for the 2023 campaign.

It’s a different approach but one that Yormark believes will pay dividends in the future.

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