Brett Yormark reveals Big 12's stance on scheduling partnerships with other conferences

Throughout this week’s SEC spring meetings in Destin, scheduling took center stage. One idea included a potential collaboration between the conference and the Big Ten, which are both at the forefront of the college football conversation.

That led to a question for Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark about whether his league would pursue something similar with another conference. He told Front Office Sports’ David Rumsey that’s not in the plans.

Yormark, speaking at the Big 12’s spring meetings in Orlando, said the league is happy with its current schedule. He added there isn’t a partnership in place with another conference, with the goal to play a wide range of opponents.

“No. We’re fine,” Yormark told FOS. “We love our out-of-conference schedule. We don’t necessarily have an alliance with any particular conference. We play them all.”

The idea of a Big Ten-SEC scheduling partnership first came about last year as the two conferences sought four auto-bids each to the College Football Playoff. It came back up again this week in Destin as coaches discussed the possibility of adding Big Ten opponents to the schedule.

LSU coach Brian Kelly particularly expressed interest in the possibility. He called on SEC teams to play nine conference games as well as one against their Big Ten counterparts every year.

“We want to compete against the Big Ten,” Kelly said, via ESPN’s Heather Dinich. “Look, the Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC. They’ve won the last two national championships. That’s the reality of it. We want to get challenged in that regard, and we’d like to be able to get that done. That is up to our commissioner and the ADs to see if that can happen or not, but that’s the wish of the room.”

The SEC’s conference schedule was front and center once again this week. Currently, the league plays eight games in its conference schedule, while others such as the Big Ten and Big 12 play nine games. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey acknowledged conversations took place throughout the spring meetings, but no decision came out of Destin as teams wait for an answer on the College Football Plaoyff format.

One CFP proposal includes a 5-plus-11 format, featuring the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large teams. However, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the Big Ten might not support it if the SEC stays at eight games.