The Big 12 is now on the look for its next commissioner.

On Friday, the conference announced Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark will be stepping down from his position, effective Jan. 31, 2027. ESPN reported Yormark is preparing to take another job outside of college sports.

A search for a new commissioner is to begin immediately.

“Serving as the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference has been an extraordinary honor,” Yormark said in a statement. “I want to thank the Big 12 Board of Directors, Board Chair Douglas A. Girod, athletic directors, coaches, student-athletes, fans, fellow commissioners, and trusted colleagues at the league office. I am looking forward to passing the baton to the next commissioner and continuing to cheer this league on as a lifelong fan of the Big 12.”

Brett Yormark

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark speaks July 9 at 2026 Big 12 Football Media Days.

Yormark took over as the Big 12’s fifth commissioner in place of Bob Bowlsby ahead of the 2022-23 school year. The conference was in a pivotal spot when Yormark stepped in. Oklahoma and Texas were headed to the SEC, the Big 12 needed new media rights contracts and the league faced collapse with conference realignment.

Bowlsby added BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF before his departure, re-stabilizing the conference back to 12 teams. Yormark kept the Big 12 on the offensive when he took over, jumping in line ahead of the also-struggling Pac-12 in fall of 2022 and signing a six-year, $2.3 billion extension of its media rights with ESPN and Fox Sports through 2030-31.

With the newfound stability, Yormark further expanded the league to 16 teams by adding Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12 – essentially dropping the Pac-12 out of the Power Conference ranks. The Big 12, once thought to be in jeopardy of falling apart, stood strong.

“Speaking on behalf of all of the Big 12 Presidents, we thank Brett for shepherding this great conference through an extraordinary period in college athletics,” University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas A. Girod, Chair of the Big 12 Board of Directors, said in a statement. “When Brett arrived, we were at a crossroads in the Big 12 and as a college sports enterprise. Brett’s vision, business acumen, and confidence put us on the path we find ourselves on today. He leveraged traditional and non-traditional avenues in the college space, solidifying the Big 12 Conference’s future. We are appreciative of his leadership, wish he and his family well, and look forward to building upon the strong foundation he helped put in place.”

Eric Morris and Brett Yormark

Oklahoma State football coach Eric Morris and Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark speak July 9 at the 2026 Big 12 Football Media Days.

Yormark was a hire out of left field. He had worked in NASCAR and in the NBA, but his most recent role was as CEO of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. It was an outside-the-box approach that turned out to be what the Big 12 needed.

Besides expanding the conference and bargaining a new media rights agreement, Yormark tried different ways to get the Big 12 ahead.

He signed a deal to make Monster Energy the entitlement partner of the conference’s football and basketball seasons, bringing in extra revenue. Yormark added halftime shows and other experience enhancements to Big 12 championship events. He pushed for international football games, as Iowa State, Kansas State and TCU have recently played in the Aer Lingus Classic in Ireland, and Kansas faced Arizona State at Wembley Stadium in London in September.

“When I accepted this job, my goal was to put this conference on an upward trajectory and truly believe that the future of the conference could not be in better shape,” Yormark said. “The next commissioner of this league will inherit a conference that is ‘16 Strong.’ There has never been a better time to be a member of the Big 12 than right now.”

Yormark trophy.jpg

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark hands the 2026 Big 12 championship trophy to Texas coach Steve Sarkisian.

Now, the Big 12 begins the search for its sixth conference commissioner. The conference is more stable than it was last time around, but it still faces issues – conference realignment likely isn’t done, media right will soon need renegotiated and the landscape of college athletics is always changing.

ESPN spoke with Girod about the Big 12’s future and its search for a new commissioner.

“I’m going in very open-minded. I don’t need a (Yormark) twin,” Girod told ESPN. “I need someone who hopefully has some experience with campuses, and mostly is going to be an innovator and help us on that path of revenue diversification and thinking differently about how we conduct ourselves and be the tip of the spear in some of these changes.”

Here’s a look at the other Power Four conference commissioners and their background.

ACC: James J. Phillips, Ph.D. – Phillips took over in 2021 after a longtime career as an athletics administrator. He was the athletic director at Northern Illinois (2004-08) and Northwestern (2008-21) before becoming ACC commissioner in 2021. Phillips is the first ACC commissioner without ACC ties.

Big Ten: Tony Petitti – Petitti, a 14-time National Sports Emmy Award winner, took over in 2023. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1986 and joined ABC Sports as a general attorney in 1988, later becoming vice president of programming. Petitti was then vice president of CBS Sports from 2002-08, president and CEO of MLB Network from 2008-14 and deputy commissioner and COO for the MLB from 2014-20.

SEC: Greg Sankey – Sankey has been commissioner since 2015 but has been around the SEC and college sports much longer. He was director of compliance and academic services and the head golf coach at Northwestern from 1990-92 before going to work at the Southland Conference, where became commissioner from 1996-2002. Sankey made the move to the SEC in 2002 as associate commissioner, then COO in 2012, then commissioner in 2015.

Source: Yahoo Sports