Brett Yormark, an government with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and former CEO of the Brooklyn Nets, was named Large 12 commissioner Wednesday, one other unconventional rent by a significant convention amid the quickly altering panorama of school athletics.
Yormark is taking on for Bob Bowlsby, who got here to the league a decade in the past after stints as athletic director at Stanford, Iowa and Northern Iowa.
The background for Yormark isn’t in school athletics, however might play an attention-grabbing function for a convention bracing for challenges in income with the upcoming departures of Oklahoma and Texas whereas adjusting to athletes cashing in on use of their celeb.
Yormark is predicted to begin Aug. 1, however might be prone to make his first public look at Large 12 soccer media days within the Dallas space July 13-14.
"I’m right here to pay attention, be taught, discover methods so as to add worth, add sources and attempt to assist shine a lightweight on the significance of school athletics," Yormark mentioned. "I sit up for leveraging my expertise and community alongside our presidents, chancellors and athletic administrators to form the way forward for the Large 12 model and emphasize our collective strengths."
The hiring of Yormark is much like the Pac-12′s alternative for commissioner final yr — former MGM Resorts Worldwide government George Kliavkoff, who additionally had an in depth background in digital media.
The most important problem looming for Yormark is shedding the highly effective manufacturers of the Sooners and Longhorns.
Inside weeks of OU and Texas accepting invitations from the SEC, the Large 12 expanded by including BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston. It may very well be a 14-team league for 2 years if the Sooners and Longhorns don’t go away early.
Yormark joined Jay-Z’s advertising and marketing company in 2019 as co-CEO of Roc Nation Unified, which handles licensing and branding. The 55-year-old was promoted to the corporate’s total chief working officer in January.
Earlier than Roc Nation, Yormark spent nearly 15 years with the Nets, overseeing the membership’s transfer from New Jersey and building of the Barclays Heart. Yormark left the Nets after Joseph Tsai purchased controlling curiosity in 2019.
Yormark was with NASCAR earlier than the Nets, overseeing the $750 million settlement with Nextel Communications for naming rights to the circuit’s high racing collection.
"Brett is likely one of the most expert and educated executives in sports activities and leisure," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned. "His many years of operational expertise, relentless work ethic and robust trade relationships might be of huge worth to the Large 12, its colleges and followers."
Yormark joins the Large 12 in a interval of uncertainty, though not one as dire as when Bowlsby took over. The 70-year-old Bowlsby is retiring however planning to transition into an interim function till his contract expires in 2025.
The league in 2012 was coming off a two-year interval when it misplaced 4 colleges to 3 different conferences and at occasions appeared on the point of collapse. The Large 12 ultimately settled as a 10-team league with the additions of TCU and West Virginia, and secured the profitable media deal not lengthy after hiring Bowlsby.
The Large 12 loved nearly a decade of relative stability earlier than the stunner from Oklahoma and Texas final summer time. Now the convention has to battle the notion that the lack of the Sooners and Longhorns has dropped it a notch beneath the opposite Energy 5 conferences.
Reporting by the Related Press
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