(05-03-2023 05:06 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: (05-03-2023 03:37 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote: (05-03-2023 03:26 PM)dbackjon Wrote: (05-03-2023 03:22 PM)GreenBison Wrote: As a fan I hate this kind of BS. Quit trying to entertain me with a bunch of bubble gum stuff and show the game, that's why I'm here.
Agreed - I especially dislike in-game interviews - really cheesy.
Some may say innovative, I say desperation. Yappy is a like a carnival barker.
He is like a carnival barker in some ways, though don't people choose to go to carnivals? I'd say that it's more "innovative" than "desperate". He can't compete with tOSU and Alabama and their ilk on a Brand vs Brand basis, but he can try to maximize the potential with what he does have. Separate contract for Basketball in 2031? Games in Mexico? Different content in-game? Some of it might be great, some of it might flop, but at least he's trying something different that MIGHT work.
Kliavkoff is radio silent and Phillips is lawyering up and starting committees to explore things, while Yormark is actually doing things.
I think Yormark creating the Big 12 Pro Day and having it covered by the NFL Network is legitimately innovative. IMHO, that's a really good idea in taking an event that has been separately run by the schools to varying degrees of success and consolidating it into a single platform that promotes the conference and serves a practical purpose in allowing NFL scouts to come to one single pro day as opposed to 12 different ones.
Now, the fawning by some fans over stuff that has already been done but Yormark makes it sound like it's new or innovative is where I go side-eyed. For instance, as I've pointed out, the Big Ten has had a separate basketball TV contract for decades and the Big East has had its own. There's no secret unlocked value from separating basketball out from the overall conference TV contract (and note that the Big Ten - not the ACC or Big 12 or anyone else - is actually the most-watched basketball conference, so it would have been the one in the best position to get extra value from hoops out of anyone). I don't have an issue with Yormark wanting the basketball contract to be separate, but the thought that it's going to goose the overall value of the league much or at all doesn't really track with the experience of the Big Ten.
Similarly, the Mexico games are fine and I get the argument for them, but we've had a lot of different international games over the years.
I think the Big 12 adding Gonzaga would be great. It makes total sense to me. What I don't get is Yormark publicly saying on *multiple* occasions that the Big 12 has been speaking to Gonzaga, but then we haven't seen any movement months later. If the Big 12 isn't going to add Gonzaga until it gets clarity on the Pac-12 situation, then that's perfectly rational... but don't even talk about speaking with Gonzaga if that's the case. Kliavkoff has rightly been getting hammered for his not-so-clandestine visit to SMU, yet what Yormark has done in straight up saying the Big 12 has been talking to Gonzaga (which is pretty unprecedented even for G5 and midmajor conferences, much less a P5 league) seems to go under the radar for some reason.
To be sure, I'll admit that I'm biased based on working with all of these types of personalities over the years: I generally see an inverse relationship between real leverage and how much someone talks publicly. You don't see Greg Sankey giving out interviews everywhere and "acting aggressive" because the SEC has *real* leverage. The SEC commissioner doesn't need to talk about being aggressive - they just go out and add UT and OU and then set up the CFP system that they want. Now, that doesn't mean being a silent pushover and letting others control the narrative is good, either. That is what I think is what has been happening with the Pac-12, so there's a balance there.
So, in essence you are saying you play the cards you are dealt. If you have a pat hand, it's fine to look a little worried and say nothing. If you are holding a disaster that won't add up, you try to bluff your way to the next hand dealt. There's nothing new here. It's done at every level of business.
The issue is also obvious. We are waiting on clarity with the PAC 12 situation because they are waiting on clarity in the Big 10 situation, and the Big 10 is waiting on clarity in the Notre Dame situation and this is because that's how it works now that Texas and Oklahoma are off the table and USC is accounted for.
The SEC doesn't have to say or do anything. They can anticipate a variety of outcomes and arrange and develop potential responses to them, but that's about it.
The SEC moved first, the Big 10 responded, but didn't really make a move which threatened the SEC in any way.
That makes Notre Dame the most sought after prize on the table. Take USC and UCLA and use that move which is solid on its own terms and wait to see what happens with the Irish. If they come on board that opens a collective market value that covers Washington and Oregon and maybe they can bring somebody else of value with them.
Notre Dame isn't shaking loose until they figure out the most cost effective way to move.
The SEC won't poach the ACC until the ACC schools interested figure their own way out, which would free Notre Dame in all likelihood, which would make further PAC 12 interests for the Big 10 possible, which would free the Four Corners to move to the Big 12, which shuts Yormark up. Until then if he wants to be remembered he has to keep yapping to get attention.
I think Frank, that what Yormark is doing is just keeping the Big 12 in the headlines fearing that no noise makes them truly an afterthought. So he risks the downside of lack of professionalism for the sake of keeping his name before the public.
When George Corley Wallace was elected Governor of Alabama the first time, he was excluded from Democratic fundraising events among the wealthy elite of Birmingham. He had his wife, Lurleen's family, call the fundraiser he wasn't invited to and page him multiple times during the evening. So, his name was heard many times by everyone at the event to which he was excluded. This made him seem much more viable than he really was and resulted in his ultimate victory. He had the rural support, and as that became clear the money in Montgomery, Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville fell behind him to control him.
Yormark's antics remind me a great deal of the paging of George Wallace at that Birmingham fundraiser those many, many years ago. At least the trajectory of Yormark isn't likely to be as controversial.
/
Ross Dellenger: Big 12 explores In-Game Interviews, Behind the Scenes Access
