Tag: Media days

Jul 12, 2023; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian is interviewed during Big 12 football media day at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Sarkisian: Texas’ final season in Big 12 ‘won’t be awkward’

Posted on | by Field Level Media

For one season, the Big 12 will carry 14 members — four incoming and two outgoing.

If you think that the commingling of Texas and Oklahoma with BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF would make for an uncomfortable yearlong dinner party, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian disagrees.

“It won’t be awkward for us,” Sarkisian said Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days. “I can’t speak for anybody else. It won’t be awkward for us.

“We’ve got a roster full of players who quite frankly came to the University of Texas to try to win a Big 12 Championship, and we’ve got one more opportunity to do that, and I think our guys are focused on that. And so it won’t be awkward from our end, but like I said, I can’t speak for everybody else.”

Texas and Oklahoma will depart for the SEC in 2024, but in the meantime the Longhorns were picked to win the Big 12 in the preseason media poll, edging defending champion Kansas State.

The Longhorns have gone 13 years and counting since last winning a conference title, the 2009 Big 12 banner. The storied program has only been to one of the past six Big 12 championship games since the game was re-instituted in 2017.

So Sarkisian was effusive in praising his players for being motivated by the here and now, not the SEC move.

“I know there’s been so much talk about the SEC and what’s happening in 2024, but I think one thing that I love about this team that we have this year is their focus on 2023 and this opportunity we have here in the Big 12,” Sarkisian said. “It’s going to be a heck of a season, great competition.”

While Sarkisian aimed to keep things positive in his remarks to the media, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy appeared bothered by Texas being voted atop the poll, wondering if the voting had been based on “the last 50 years” instead of the present day.

“I think it’s pretty clear and easy to say, hey, we’re going to get everybody’s best shot every Saturday,” Sarkisian said.

The Longhorns lost high-powered running back tandem Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson to the NFL, but the offense is expected to be strong behind Quinn Ewers at quarterback, Georgia transfer Adonai Mitchell at wide receiver and others.

“I know a lot is made of the players that we’ve brought in, but we’ve got a lot of veteran players that came to the University of Texas to win a championship,” Sarkisian said. “They bought into a new coach, a new coaching staff, a new style of play, a new culture and inevitably they’re leaders on our team now, and they get a chance going into some of them their final season to compete for a Big 12 Championship.”

Texas’ Big 12 slate will begin Sept. 23 with a trip to Baylor. The Longhorns will conclude the regular season and say goodbye to the Big 12 by playing another in-state rival, Texas Tech, on Nov. 24 in Austin.

“I hope (the Texas Tech game) carries extra weight because hopefully we’re competing to get into the championship game,” Sarkisian said. “But the reality of it is, hey, we’ve had some longstanding games with a lot of teams in the Big 12, and we’re going to embrace every opportunity we get this year.”

–Field Level Media

Jul 18, 2022; Atlanta, GA, USA; SEC commissioner Greg Sankey delivers comments to open SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Commish: SEC not planning reactionary expansion

Posted on | by Field Level Media

No plans are being shaped by reconstruction of other conferences, commissioner Greg Sankey said regarding the makeup of the Southeastern Conference.

Sankey, who opened SEC Media Days in Atlanta with a press conference on Monday, said there is no conference as strong as the SEC — which is “as strong as ever,” in his opinion.

With the SEC set to expand to 16 teams in 2025, if not before, by adding Texas and Oklahoma, the Big Ten set its own realignment in motion by bringing aboard UCLA and Southern Cal in a move announced last month.

“We’re comfortable at 16,” Sankey said. “There’s no sense of urgency; there’s no sense of panic. We’re not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I’d never say they aren’t, and I’d never say they are.”

Sankey said the time is now for groupthink among conference heads and college sports decision-makers before the land-grab mindset takes hold.

“We’re dealing with complex problems that won’t be solved with complaints, by accusations, by finger-pointing, by offering simple solutions,” Sankey said. “What is needed now is collaboration, deep thinking about real-world solutions with everyone participating in the conversation.”

Unwilling to divulge all of his cards, Sankey did confess he hears from other teams in various conferences asking for an assessment of their worthiness to be in the SEC. Reports circulated last month that Clemson, North Carolina and Notre Dame had been in contact with the SEC. Sankey said that is simply the current state of college football.

But while he has his listening ears on, Sankey said the SEC must decide what it has to gain.

“I’m not trying to be a smart-aleck guy, but we are a superleague,” Sankey said.

–Field Level Media

Jul 14, 2021; Arlington, TX, USA; Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby speaks to the media during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Bob Bowlsby: No decision yet on Big 12 COVID protocols for ’21

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby on Wednesday said the conference has yet to establish COVID-19 protocols for the upcoming football season but added that any unvaccinated athlete will be in the testing protocol.

Bowlsby made the comments to open Big 12 Media Days in Arlington, Texas, and encouraged everyone — especially student-athletes — to get vaccinated. However, Bowlsby also said the league cannot mandate vaccinations for its athletes.

“Frankly, anyone not getting vaccinated is taking unnecessary and unwarranted risks,” Bowlsby said. “That’s not just student-athletes but anyone in society. … I think it’s very short-sighted to not get vaccinated.”

Bowlsby said the Big 12 will have COVID-19 protocols in place in 30 days.

“Frankly, we’re not excited to think about having to have protocols,” Bowlsby said. “But we’re also not unprepared.”

Big 12 conference play opens Sept. 18 with Baylor at Kansas.

–Field Level Media