Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said expansion remains a focus for the conference, which wrapped up its spring meetings Friday with a record revenue distribution of $440 million to split among its 10 current schools.
Less than a year after becoming the commissioner, Yormark said there was a "great discussion" about expansion during the meetings, which were held in West Virginia for the first time.
"We have a plan. As I've said all along, we have an appetite to be a national conference in our makeup from coast to coast. And we do believe in the upside of basketball moving forward as a collective group," Yormark said. "That being said, we love our current composition, love the four new schools that are coming in next month. However, if the opportunity presents itself to create value, we will pursue it."
Conference realignment is just one component of the major changes college athletics has experienced over the past few years, but it is among the most noticeable as each of the Power Five leagues — the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 andd Southeastern Conference — works to strengthen or at least hold its position in the pecking order.
The Big 12 will expand from 10 to 14 schools on July 1, when BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF officially join the league. Those additions come a year before the departures of Oklahoma and Texas — the only current Big 12 programs that have won national championships in football — to the SEC.
The $440 million distribution for the 2022-23 school year is up from $426 million last year, and Yormark said that number will continue to grow in the future.
Last fall, Big 12 officials extended their media rights deal with ESPN and Fox Sports through the 2030-31 school year. That contract, which includes football and basketball broadcasts, was set to expire in two years.
While Yormark didn't get into specifics about potential expansion, he acknowledged "football is the driver" but said the league would explore all options.
He was asked if future expansion candidates would have to be full members, or if there could be potential additions that don't field football teams. West Coast Conference member Gonzaga, for instance, is an NCAA tournament regular in men's basketball but does not have a football program — and multiple media reports have mentioned the Bulldogs as a Big 12 candidate.
"We see the upside in basketball moving forward for all the right reasons. We think it's undervalued, and there's a chance for us to double down as the No. 1 basketball conference in America," Yormark said.
"There have been conversations, obviously, about what would happen in that next TV cycle. Certainly nothing can be done now, nor should it, in fact. But as we think about the future and ways to create value, there is always that option to decouple basketball from football, to see if there is further value we can create for the conference. And we have positioned ourselves to do so at that point in time, if the opportunity presents itself and it makes sense."
Other developments from the week in West Virginia:
— Yormark said the Big 12 is doing a branding refresh over the next year, but it won't include changing the league's name or logo: "A refresh is just taking the current visual identity and just contemporizing it and modernizing it. We're not changing our logo at this point in time. But how do we showcase it maybe with different colors and different applications?"
— There were discussions about extending contracts with the league's existing championship sites, including AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for football, as well as Kansas City for basketball and Oklahoma City for softball.
— The league plans to unveil, as early as next week, an international strategy focused on Mexico.
"It will outline our strategic plan why we're doing it, the rationale behind it, how we're going to enter the market, who we're partnering with," Yormark said. "We're truly excited about our international plans and getting into that market sooner than later."