Big 12 Notes

—

Big 12 Notes – Spring/Summer

—

May 6th

… Foe Pause … 

Big 12 extends the contract of commissioner Brett Yormark

From ESPN … The Big 12’s board of directors has voted to give commissioner Brett Yormark a three-year contract extension, the conference announced Tuesday.

Yormark’s extension will run through 2030. He had originally agreed in 2022 to a five-year deal through 2027.

The Big 12 presidents are rewarding Yormark’s work stabilizing and modernizing the Big 12 in the wake of the Oklahoma and Texas announcing their departures in 2021.

“We have made great progress over the last three years, and our best days are ahead,” Yormark said in a statement. “I am thrilled to continue to work alongside our member schools as we grow and strengthen the Big 12 into a Conference that is innovative and prepared for what the future may hold.”

Yormark took over for Bob Bowlsby in 2022, and he led two signature moves for the league — a new television deal and a four-school expansion. His early declaration of the Big 12 being “open for business” has served as a fitting mantra for a tenure that has been highlighted by his constant pursuit of dealmaking.

Yormark has done considerable work in upgrading the experience and feel of both the Big 12 football and basketball championships, helping elevate those events. The Big 12 also added a conference-wide football pro day under Yormark, the first of its kind in college sports.

The aggressive pursuit and consummation of a new television deal is Yormark’s biggest moment as commissioner. Early on in his tenure in the summer of 2022, he prioritized and achieved early negotiations with Fox and ESPN more than a year before the exclusive negotiating window. A few months later, the Big 12 agreed to a six-year, $2.28 billion deal.

By going to the table early, the Big 12 positioned itself ahead of the Pac-12, which proved an inflection point in the Pac-12’s spiral.

The Pac-12’s weakness and failure to land a television deal of significant heft led to the Big 12 luring Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah as members. Yormark led that charge in July and August of 2023.

Along with the addition of those four schools, he helped oversee the transition of four additional members that agreed to come aboard before his arrival — UCF, BYU, Cincinnati and Houston.

… Continue reading story here …

–

—–

May 3rd

… Foe Pause … 

Longhorns’ turn to buy a title? Payroll projected to be $40 million

From The Athletic …  College football roster budgets have ballooned this offseason as teams prepare for a new era in which schools can compensate athletes directly. But could a championship team cost as much as $40 million?

That’s one high-end estimate of what Texas could be spending on its 2025 roster, according to a Houston Chronicle report from columnist Kirk Bohls. Bohls, who has covered the Longhorns for more than 50 years, reported Wednesday that the team’s roster budget currently sits somewhere “between $35 million and $40 million,” including the revenue the school will be able to share as a result of the House v. NCAA settlement.

If that budget range is accurate, it represents a significant leap from the previous highest known roster budget in the sport: Ohio State’s 2024 roster, which went on to win the national championship, cost around $20 million, athletic director Ross Bjork told the Columbus Dispatch and Yahoo! Sports last summer.

Is an estimate of as much as twice the Buckeyes’ figure realistic or far-fetched? The Athletic reached out to multiple Texas officials to confirm the veracity of the Chronicle’s report, but all declined comment. But after conversations with a dozen people elsewhere in college football with knowledge of roster budgets, including general managers, personnel directors and name, image and likeness collective heads, here’s what we know — and don’t — about Texas’ spending power and the state of roster budgets headed into the 2025 season. Each person was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about team finances.

Industry insiders don’t think a $35-40 million roster budget is out of the question for top programs.

A February survey of 13 coaches and personnel staffers on the transfer portal and player compensation contained a variety of answers on what it would take to build a championship roster in their conferences. But one Power 4 general manager offered this: “$40-50 million. That’s where I think it’s going to go.”

Asked about the Texas estimate today, several GMs, personnel directors and people in the NIL world believed the number.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said the founder of a Power 4 collective. “Texas is a massive program and is obviously looking to win titles. (Athletic directors) and universities who don’t believe teams will go way above the (revenue sharing) cap, especially ones that want to compete for titles, are lying to themselves and their fan bases.”

Nearly everyone surveyed on Wednesday found a $35 million to $40 million roster to be realistic for Texas, with several suggesting only a small handful of schools can spend in that ballpark. A second Power 4 GM described Texas as paying some of its backup players like starters.

… Read full story here …

–

—-

May 1st

… Foe Pause … 

Big 12 teams which lost the most to the Spring Transfer Portal (no, not CU)

From The Athletic … The 10-day spring transfer portal window traditionally is not as loaded with talent as the winter window. Most Power 4 rosters have had position needs met by now, and NIL budgets are usually tapped out by the time April rolls around.

Yet, we’ve continued to see movement as players look for a boost in pay or a fresh start on a depth chart elsewhere. It’s hard to call any P4 program a winner or loser at this point in the process (the portal window closes end of day Friday for both graduates and undergraduates), but it’s fair to say some programs have been hit harder by departures than others.

Yes, Tennessee lost quarterback Nico Iamaleava to essentially a contract dispute, but the SEC, for the most part, was unscathed by losses during the spring window.

Here’s a look at eight programs that lost notable players.

BYU

The Cougars have had 10 players enter the portal during the spring window, and two stand out as notable losses. Linebacker Harrison Taggart had 69 tackles, one sack and one interception over 12 starts in 2024. Receiver Keelan Marion, an electric return specialist, ranked third on the team with 24 catches for 346 yards, and he returned two kickoffs for touchdowns last season as well.

Houston

Willie Fritz has had some solid transfer portal victories since taking over the Cougars, including landing tight end Tanner Koziol this spring after he left Wisconsin.

But it’s not often that a first-team All-Big 12 selection like safety A.J. Haulcy hits the market this time of year. Haulcy, who signed with New Mexico out of high school, led the Cougars with five interceptions and ranked second with 74 tackles last season. He’s made 33 career starts. The Cougars also lost cornerback Jeremiah Wilson, who started eight games in 2024 and was second on the team with four interceptions.

… Continue reading story here …

–

—–

April 27th

… Foe Pause … 

CU’s Big Saturday gives Buff Coaches a selling point

The Shedeur Sanders soap opera played out on the national stage over the weekend. From about 7:00 p.m., MT, on Thursday to around 1:00 p.m., MT, on Saturday (or about TEN hours of air time on ESPN), the “Mel Kiper Best Available” list on the scroll, popping up every few minutes, listed: “1. Shedeur Sanders – Quarterback – Colorado”.

ESPN’s lead story on its NFL Draft page on Friday was about the fall of Shedeur Sanders out of the first round, with the New York Giants trading back into the first round … to take quarterback Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss.

ESPN’s lead story on its NFL Draft page on Saturday was about the fall of Shedeur Sanders out of the second and third rounds, with three more quarterbacks taken before him.

Finally, with the sixth pick of the fifth round – pick No. 144 overall – Shedeur was off the board.

Perhaps as important for Coach Prime and the CU coaching staff, though, was the drafting in the sixth round of wide receivers LaJohntay Wester (by Baltimore) and Jimmy Horn (by Carolina).

Now, there are certainly no guarantees that Wester or Horn will make the final roster of their respective teams, but that is almost beside the point.

What matters is that CU had four players taken in the 2025 NFL Draft. Certainly not double digit selections, like Ohio State (14) or Georgia (13), but that isn’t the arena within which CU coaches are currently competing for recruits.

CU doesn’t have NIL money the big boys have. CU’s pitch to transfers and recruits is to not worry about getting the bag in college. “Come to CU, be coached by Hall of Famers. We’ll get you to the NFL … then you will get paid”.

That sales pitch would ring pretty hollow if all CU had to show from the 2025 Draft was Travis Hunter and … Shedeur being drafted as a backup quarterback.

But now …

Here is a listing of the 2025 NFL Draft by school:

• 14 – Ohio State
• 13 – Georgia
• 12 – Texas
• 10 – Oregon
• 8 – Ole Miss
• 7 – Alabama, Michigan, Miami, LSU, Florida
• 6 – Notre Dame, Maryland
• 5 – South Carolina, Penn State, Virginia Tech, UCLA, Iowa
• 4 – Tennessee, Iowa State, Cal, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Syracuse

In the Big 12, the list looks like this:

• Arizona – 4 … Colorado – 4 … Iowa State – 4 … Oklahoma State – 4
• Kansas State – 3
• Kansas – 2 … TCU – 2 … Texas Tech – 2 … UCF – 2
• Arizona State – 1 … Cincinnati – 1 … Utah – 1 … West Virginia – 1
• Baylor – 0 … BYU – 0 … Houston – 0

National programs which had fewer draft selections in the 2025 NFL Draft than did Colorado:

• SEC … Texas A&M, Missouri, Auburn, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, Vanderbilt
• Big Ten … USC, Nebraska, Minnesota, Rutgers, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Washington
• ACC … Clemson, Pitt, Boston College, SMU, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Florida State, Virginia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Cal

Now, having four picks in the Draft is not great, especially when three of the four Buffs taken were in the later rounds, but it’s a very good start. The four picks equals the total number of Buffs who heard their name called in the past five NFL Drafts combined.

So, dear recruits, you can come to Boulder, get paid less than you would at other name schools, and still make it to the league (where the guaranteed salary for the lowest paid player is $800,000 per year).

—

The future is now in the race to the Super Conference

It’s important for CU to remain competitive over the next few years, hoping to get an invite to the Big Boy table in a few years, when the Super Conference is formed.

But the future may be coming even sooner than we thought.

In total, 150 of the 257 players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft finished their collegiate careers at SEC or Big Ten schools. Including players from the ACC and Big 12, the four power conferences made up 223 of the 257 picks in the draft, and the staggering 86.7 percent figure demonstrates how talent now rises through the collegiate ranks before making its way to the NFL. The Mountain West and AAC tied for the most picks of any Group of Five conference with six each. Eight players went from the FCS level to the NFL.

But, Big 12 and ACC, don’t look now, but the gulf between the Big Two and the Lesser Two is widening as well. Here is the breakdown by conference:

• SEC … 79 selections;
• Big Ten … 71;
• ACC … 42;
• Big 12 … 31;
• Notre Dame … 6;
• Mountain West … 6 (CSU: 1);
• American … 6;
• MAC … 4

So, for those scoring at home, out of the Power Four, out of the 223 picks, 150, or 67%, played for the Big Ten and SEC; only one-third came out of the Big 12 and ACC.

And it’s not likely that the gap will be narrowing anytime soon.

–

It’s the same at the top of the Draft as well … 

Take a look at how the first round of the NFL Draft played out, with picks by conference:

• SEC: 15
• Big Ten: 11
• Big 12: 2 (CU’s Travis Hunter No. 2; Arizona’s WR Tetairoa McMillan No. 8)
• ACC: 2 (Miami’s QB Cam Ward No. 1; North Carolina’s RB Omarion Hampton No. 22)
• Mountain West: 1 (Boise State’s RB Ashton Jeanty No. 6)
• FCS: 1 (North Dakota State’s OG Grey Zabel No. 18)

Yup. That’s 26 of the 32 first round NFL Draft picks (81%) coming from the Big Two, with a grand total of four from the Big 12 and ACC. Ohio State had as many first round picks as the Big 12 and ACC had combined.

The division between the have’s and the have not’s in the FBS is getting even greater. But the division between the Big Ten/SEC and the Big 12/ACC is growing at an alarming rate.

–

—–

This post, about the Spring/Summer game, from the 2025 Season, is filed under Article.
You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment.