John Calipari had the ball — and possibly Brett Yormark’s career — in his hands.
It was the mid-1990s, and the manager of the New Jersey Nets needed the help of a team coach. Yormark, the new Big 12 commissioner, was then in the sponsorship business trying to get a deal done with Pathmark CEO Jim Donald.
“He was a young guy. We were both pretty young,” Calipari told CBS Sports from Yormark. “He used me to help sell him a sponsorship. I thought, ‘You know what? If he’s got the balls to come in here and say, ‘I need you to help me sell this sponsorship,’ I’ll do it.”
It wasn’t really that easy. Calipari wasn’t bad, outscoring Donald 10-1 in one-on-ones.
“I had to give him one, or we’d lose the bill,” said Calipari, now a Hall of Fame coach at Kentucky. “It ended up being our biggest bill.”
A connection was made. Yormark and Calipari remain the closest of friends to this day.
With Calipari back in the college game since 2000 and Yormark embarking on his first foray into intercollegiate athletics, he’s sure to lean on his friend for advice as he eyes a decisive month in space before his Aug. 1 start date.
The 55-year-old Yormark not only has to learn his new job on the run, he has to understand the intricacies of conference realignment — fast. With USC and UCLA making shocking moves to the Big Ten in 2024, college football has begun its second round of realignment in as many years.
Enter Yormark, who was unknown to many in the Big 12 before being named Bob Bowlsby’s replacement. Eyebrows were already raised when he got the job despite precious few connections to the league or the profession. A guy from New York with a Big Ten (Indiana) degree who works for Jay-Z after a rewarding career in professional sports doesn’t fit the Big 12 profile.
But Larry Scott, and now George Kliavkoff, came in from the outside to direct the Pac-12. Former Minnesota Vikings CEO Kevin Warren, armed with two West Coast powers, is one step away from negotiating a monster media rights deal for the Big Ten.
Like it or not, a significant part of the future of college athletics is in their hands. Balls? Yormark will need them.
“I knew (Brett) was going to blow them away,” Calipari said. “He had to sit in a room and say, ‘Guys, we need something different.’ Not that he doesn’t understand television, marketing and sponsorships. But what the Big 12 needs right now is, ‘We’re going to have to think differently. What’s our path forward to jump up and be a disruptor for us?’ “
In the Big 12, it’s up to Yormark to strategize whether his league will be without its 12-team roster in 2025 or engage in what one industry source called a realignment with the Pac-12.
As of Saturday afternoon, two days after the Big Ten’s massive announcement, those issues were still floating in the breeze. The Big 12 presidents have not formally met to discuss expansion. Of course, that could change in the blink of an eye.
The Pac-12 has already publicly said it will aggressively pursue “all expansion options.”
The Big 12 should know more than any other league how important it is to be proactive in expansion. Texas and Oklahoma shocked the world less than a year ago this month by escaping the SEC.
If ESPN thought nothing of leaving the Big 12 in danger of collapsing last summer — as Bowlsby claimed — then Fox had to consider the same about the Pac-12.
“No. 1, we have to stick together,” said one Pac-12 administrator. “Number 2, we have to find a way forward.”
Ditto for Yormark and the Big 12. The new commissioner met with his athletic directors Friday via Zoom. The reviews were great.
Now there needs to be a strategy for the realignment process that could be well under way before Yormark takes office in a month.
