I am very impressed with what this conference has done under Brett Yormark as commissioner. There is a vibe that Yormark has created. The XII is the "younger, cooler, hipper," disruptor conference. Yormark talks a lot about brands and that's a brand. They are also active rather than reactive, nimble, opportunistic and optimistic, smart. Why not games in Mexico City? Lose Oklahoma and Texas? No problem: add BYU, Cincinnati, UCF, Houston. Those are four exciting brands with HUGE markets. Contrast with the PAC. The conference was thrown into existential crisis by the defections of USC and UCLA.
Yormark doesn't know his place and is proving it. He jumped the old boy media rights line and got a deal that secured the XII and left the PAC scrambling. Yormark wants his conference to be the first national, in all four time zones. He is missing only the Pacific right now but that's just a matter of time, perhaps weeks. He "has a plan" for further expansion that, in addition to the Pacific, reportedly includes Connecticut in the East. That would give poor West Virginia an additional running partner.
For many years the XII was the conference most likely to be contracted out of existence, with schools of debatable academics squeezed by monsters to its north, south, east and west. They lost Missouri and Texas A&M and then Oklahoma and Texas to the monster of them all, the SEC. Nobody wanted in, everybody wanted out. Now...this is a pipe dream but not a pipe nightmare any longer. The best fit for Pitt when the ACC media rights deal terminates in 2036 would be the XII. Renewed rivalries with WVU, Cincy, and perhaps UConn. We also have playing history with Brigham Young and Houston. Incredibly fertile recruiting ground in Texas. Pitt would fit in the XII, the current It conference in college athletics.
