I wonder if Yormark is plotting a very different future for the Big12. And this is step 1. Hear me out.
Eventually the NCAA will get kicked out of running the tournament, and many hundreds of millions of $$ will flow to the schools instead. It would rival the football money -- less, but not far off.
Big12 is an also ran for the football money. Why not make the B1G and SEC into the also rans for the basketball money? They get $100M annual for football, we get $50M. What if Big12 can get $70M annual for bball and they get $30M? You've closed the gap and made your brand #1 for bball.
So go get the Zags, the Big East, some ACC teams when that goes down, Arizona... put together a nationwide league with major basketball brands. People have talked about a football superleague... what about a basketball superleague? NBA-lite, like the G-League, except people actually care about it.
The Big12 will become a 2nd tier football conference with 12-16 teams. But the #1 basketball conference with maybe 30ish teams. Is that the vision? Yormark has a lot of NBA DNA.
Might not be the strategy, and it might not work regardless, but I think it is interesting.