Big 12 commish Brett Yormark names "critical" rivalry in the conference, and it's not the Duel in the Desert

Brett Yormark is set to begin his third year as commissioner of the Big 12. He was among those on hand to address the media at Big 12 Media Days, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yormark has overseen the expansion of the conference as, despite losing the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns, a record 16 teams will compete in the Big 12.

The BYU Cougars, UCF Knights, Cincinnati Bearcats and Houston Cougars all joined the conference last year. This year's addition's include the Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, Colorado Buffaloes and Utah Utes.

When asked about the top rivalries in the new-look conference, Yormark stated:

"It's huge. You know, even before we went to realignment and as we aspired to be a national conference and we talked about the possibilities, so many people said, 'oh boy, Brett, that Utah [and] BYU rivalry could be fantastic in your conference' and these were just really casual fans that know football relatively well. So, I'm excited that it's a part of it."

Yormark continued:

"You know, in addition to obviously Utah and BYU, [we] have Arizona State and Arizona, we have Kansas State and Kansas, we have TCU and Baylor, we've got Kansas State and Iowa State. There are great rivalries from top to bottom in this conference that we are certainly going to take advantage of, but at the top it's Utah and BYU."

Check out Brett Yormark's comments on the Big 12's rivalries below:

While the rivalry between BYU and Utah - dubbed the Holy War - dates back to 1896, the two teams have not played each other since 2021. In 101 previous meetings, the Utes are 62-35-4 against the Cougars.

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Brett Yormark believes that the Big 12 is the deepest conference in college football

The landscape of college football will look much different in 2024 due to conference realignment. Speaking at the Big 12 Media Days, Brett Yormark recently labeled the conference as the deepest in the sport, stating:

"I wake up every morning and I think about one thing, the Big 12 being the best version of itself. Everything else doesn't really matter. If we take care of business, we're going to be just fine. I'm a firm believer in that. We're more relevant now than we've ever been. We're a national conference. We've got 16 great brands. We're going to be the deepest football conference in America and we'll be well represented in the CFP." [h/t ESPN]

While Brett Yormark has done a tremendous job of rebuilding the conference after it appeared headed towards a collapse, it is hard to label the Big 12 as the deepest conference in college football. Until proven otherwise, the SEC and Big Ten remain the premier conferences in the sport.