Big 12 commissioner reveals ‘aggressive pitching’ process for ‘College GameDay’

It took 38 editions of ESPN’s College GameDay until the flagship college football pregame show finally set foot again on a Big 12 campus for Cincinnati-Utah earlier this month. But that doesn’t mean the conference isn’t trying to court the popular morning program whenever it sees an opportunity.

And according to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, much more goes into the planning of a GameDay pitch than simply trying to convince ESPN it has the most compelling matchup. Speaking with Jon Wilner of The Mercury News, Yormark outlined how the conference plans well ahead for potential GameDay-quality matchups, and tries to give ESPN a unique angle that will convince the network to choose their game over any other that week.

“We are constantly planning for scenarios,” Yormark said. “We say, ‘Here are the schools and here’s what we’ll do … to make the show different.’ We let them know why they should go to Utah or Texas Tech. We’re very aggressive pitching the merits of why they should come to the schools.”

That planning involves liaising with potential host schools well before the season even begins, going over the logistics of accommodating a live production of GameDay‘s scale. While the planning goes on in the background, Yormark is already pitching ESPN matchups that could have national appeal.

For a conference like the Big 12, every bit of national exposure is vital as the league tries to compete with the Big Ten and SEC. “The pregame shows are valuable,” Yormark told The Mercury News. “They serve as infomercials for the schools, so those are big moments for us.”

Wilmer reports that “the return on investment is considerable,” and that a school “would have to spend tens of millions  dollars to generate an equivalent level of brand exposure through traditional marketing.”

Ironically, after going three years between GameDay emanating from a Big 12 campus, the conference secured two in a row the past two weeks, with the ESPN show traveling to Texas Tech-BYU last Saturday.

“There’s a lot of different things behind the scenes on why they pick and where they pick,” Yormark said. “But I know one thing’s true: It’s because you have a good team and a huge community that will support the show.”