Brett Yormark is calling for strict rules enforcement of the House v. NCAA settlement terms as the landmark agreement heads into year two. The Big 12 commissioner expects by next week that representatives from each of his 16 schools will have signed the binding participant agreement, the terms of which were frequently circumvented in year one.
“I can tell you I’m not in favor of any amnesty right now,” Yormark said on Friday, May 29. “With the House settlement, we all signed up for a hard cap.
“That obviously hasn’t panned out as well as we had thought, so when you think about the discussions we’ll be having moving forward, it’s going to be around the cap. It’ll be around cap circumvention, what’s permissible and not and how do we come together and create a model that’s sustainable long-term.”
Yormark made the comments as the four-day Big 12 spring business meetings wrapped up in Frisco.
The House settlement took effect in July 2025 and authorized schools who opted in to share up to $20.5 million in revenue with their athletes during the 2025-26 school year. That figure will increase to by the stipulated 4% to $21.3 million for the 2026-27 school year.
In addition to making the full commitment to revenue sharing, however, some of the most competitive schools in Power Four conferences exceeded the agreed-upon limits in athlete compensation, especially in football and men’s basketball. Creative methods of cap circumvention included redirecting funds from schools’ multimedia rights agreements and apparel contracts.
Asked what the Big 12’s call for full compliance meant for schools in other conferences who haven’t signed the agreement, Yormark said, “For us, it means we want rules and enforcement. I can’t speak for the other conferences.
“Obviously, they all say they want rules and enforcement, but they haven’t signed up for participation, so that’s probably a better question for them, but I can tell you, having spent days with our board and ADs and our governance groups, the Big 12 wants rules and enforcements, and we want to be a leader in that area. I think signing the participation agreement certainly is indicative of that.”
Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said he signed the agreement Friday. In November, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered seven of the state’s universities in Power Four conferences not to sign the agreement. At the time, the 11-page agreement bound participants to enforcement decisions of the new College Sports Commission, waiving their rights to contest whatever sanctions or rule changes the commission would make.
In a text exchange on Friday with The Avalanche-Journal, Schovanec said, “The document has since gone through several revisions with input, including some from several state AGs as well as our general counsel. I did confirm with our GC that we were all agreed on signing.”
Texas Tech University System Board of Regents chairman Cody Campbell recently told The A-J there were schools who had spent “a lot more than $40 million this year”.
Asked about a report that included Texas Tech among schools expected to have $40 million football rosters next season, Campbell said, “We’re in that range. We were nationally competitive last year and again this year, too. We’ll continue to be. The rules are constantly changing. They’re going to change again before next year, I bet, so we will adapt.”
Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt has said recently, to booster groups and to the A-J, that he wants to develop above-the-cap revenue that will be approved by the College Sports Commission as having a valid business purpose. Athletes partnering with businesses to help market their products could be one way.
Hocutt also said Tech’s looking into whether another collective — a for-profit collective with a product for sale to the general public — is feasible.
Hocutt said Friday he hadn’t seen Yormark’s comments from earlier in the day. In a text exchange with The A-J, he said, “It would be a significant step forward if all P4 universities signed the participation agreement and a hard cap, along with meaningful enforcement mechanisms, could be established. We fully support those efforts.
“At the same time, until those standards are universally adopted and consistently enforced, we will continue to think strategically and maximize every revenue-generation opportunity available to us within the rules.”
Big 12 spring meetings notes
∎ Football coaches unanimously voiced support for the College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams. Big 12 chief competition officer Scott Draper said five Big 12 teams would have made a 24-team CFP last year.
“(Coaches) like the 24-team concept based on access and that some good teams are being left out,” Yormark said. “… With the caveat that there’s some work to be done.”
The CFP will remain at 12 teams for the 2026 season. Dec. 1 is the deadline to enact changes for the 2027 season.
Yormark said his concern under a 24-team CFP scenario would be the likely elimination of conference championship games.
“Our championship game is very valuable to us,” he said.
∎ The Big 12 broached the topic of expanding the conference basketball schedule back to 20 games per team after going from 20 in 2024-25 to 18 this past season. Yormark said there’ll be further discussion over the next two months. A switch to 20 wouldn’t happen before 2027-28.
“When you do an analysis of our ratings this past basketball season,” Yormark said, “our conference ratings are three times what the out-of-conference-control games are for the Big 12. So if you’re in the ratings game, you probably want more of the good stuff, right? And grow it. That was the impetus of the discussion of can we go back to 20.”
∎ The Big 12 heard from NCAA President Charlie Baker, who said the organization might consider a contact period before transfer portal openings for players and new teams to discuss contracts.
“It’s got a bit of a pro model to it,” Yormark said, “where there’s a contact period before the portal opens. All that needs to be worked through, but directionally we liked what we heard.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech signs latest House settlement participant agreement
Reporting by Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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