Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark says conference is ready to address religious slurs involving BYU fans, while discussing CFP expansion questions

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark used the start of the league’s football media days to tackle two separate issues with clear reach beyond any single team. First was the ongoing discussion around religious slurs aimed at BYU fans, including reported derogatory chants directed at members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Big 12 road venues. Yormark said conference leaders will take the matter up directly at an August meeting with presidents and athletic directors.

Yormark framed the issue as one the Big 12 is prepared to handle with consequences, emphasizing what he called “zero tolerance” for that type of behavior going forward. He said he would speak on behalf of his role as commissioner as well as the league’s 16 institutions, and he pointed to prior occurrences in the past school year that BYU fans experienced at events including football games at Colorado and Cincinnati, along with a men’s basketball game at Oklahoma State. He also acknowledged that some chants may have been directed more at referees than at BYU fans in at least one instance.

The commissioner said the August meeting will focus on curbing the kind of anti-religious chants that have emerged in opposing fan sections at BYU games, and he indicated the league will treat the issue as a go-forward enforcement matter rather than a one-time reminder. The comments came in response to a question from BYU’s Daily Universe, according to reporting tied to the media-days event.

In the same media-days setting, Yormark was also asked about the evolving College Football Playoff landscape, including expansion. He said the Big 12 is “content” with its current 16-team structure and that there are no immediate plans for the conference to expand. That position matters because CFP expansion discussions can influence league strategies, scheduling priorities, and the broader negotiating environment for conference media rights and football access.

Yormark also fielded questions related to BYU football and a BYU quarterback named Brendan Sorsby, reflecting that BYU remains a prominent storyline within Big 12 football conversations. While the reporting centered more on the league’s policy posture and governance plans than on on-field specifics, the presence of BYU-oriented questions underscored how non-competitive issues can still shape the game-day experience and the reputational climate around conference road trips.

At the same time, media-days remarks are often aspirational, and enforcement details can vary when the conference moves from statements to policy application across campuses. Yormark’s comments point to an intent to address the problem through conference leadership rather than leaving it solely to individual school administrators or visiting programs. BYU’s road experience will remain a barometer for how quickly the August meeting’s conclusions translate into practical changes for fans and hosting teams.