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FRISCO, Texas — Addressing Texas Tech's offseason drama at Big 12 Media Days wasn't an appropriate time, said conference commissioner Brett Yormark.

Yormark, entering his fourth year as Big 12 commissioner, took center stage on the opening day of Big 12 Media Days at Ford Center and was asked about Texas Tech and its handling of quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who is not playing this season for gambling.

"Today's not the time to address that issue," Yormark said. "Today is about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools."

Sorsby, who transferred from Cincinnati, was caught gambling on Indiana football — while he played for the Hoosiers — in 2022, MLB games, Romanian soccer matches, Turkish basketball, UFC fights and the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. 

The NCAA prohibits student-athletes and staff members from gambling or revealing information to sports bettors, in addition to betting on professional sports and using sports gambling apps. 

After betting $90,000 over the last four years, Sorsby was admitted to a rehabilitation center in Arizona for sports gambling addiction.

Texas Tech's administration — and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton — , but after legal disputes between TTU and the conference and NCAA over two months, the Red Raiders and Sorsby decided to part ways. 

Sorsby kick-started his professional career, but the NFL denied his application for the supplemental draft. The NFL hasn't selected a player in the supplemental draft since 2019.

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said the Red Raiders "went through a lot" over the last few months and risked their reputation. Georgia and Nebraska have boycotted scheduling Texas Tech for any sport in the future. 

"It's tough," McGuire said. "You know, the thing for me through all of this, my president and my (athletic director), who are good friends of mine, who believed in me, who hired me, they went through a lot.

"If you look as a whole, there were not a lot of coaches that said really a whole lot. There were some funny jabs taken by some coaches, but there wasn't a lot of coaches that just really came out and said a lot of different things."

Texas Tech will likely start sophomore Will Hammond, who started two games for the Red Raiders last season. Hammond passed for 680 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Despite the addition of Sorsby, Hammond stayed in Lubbock. 

"We've been fortunate, one, that he hasn't had any setbacks (with Hammond's knee recovery); and, two, if you ask Will Hammond throughout this process, he would tell you he was our starting quarterback and wasn't going to back away.  He's a unique individual. ... Where we're at right now, I could see Will Hammond starting the first game. We'll leave that up to the doctors and the medical staff, but he's in a really good spot."

When Yormark was asked about the Big 12's messaging to its members about sports gambling, the conference commissioner said "the integrity for the game is critically important."

"For all sports for this conference, we will continue to work with our student-athletes to educate them and to help guide them in this new environment," Yormark added. "You know, when I grew up, sports betting wasn't as available as it is today. It's a different world that student-athletes are growing up in, and they need to be educated, and that's the role that we are taking alongside our member institutions."

Here are other topics Yormark addressed at Big 12 Media Days. 

Yormark, on conference expansion: "The only way I'm going to address that is I love the makeup of our conference right now. You know, you think about the composition of the Big 12. We've added eight institutions over the last three to four years. It's taken a lot of time and effort to build cohesion. I think we're finally there.

"I don't think as a conference we're the best version of ourselves. We've got some work to still do, but we're well on our way. As I said in my closing comments, there's never been a better time to be part of this conference than right now."

Yormark, on BYU receiving derogatory comments at Big 12 venues over the last two years: "We have a zero tolerance for that kind of behavior on a go-forward basis. Zero tolerance. We have a meeting set up with the presidents, which makeup our board, and our ADs in August to address that situation and that topic very intentionally to make sure we are better next year.

"As I said in my closing comments, my goal, our collective goal, is to be great every day for our student-athletes, for our member institutions, for our communities that we live in, and we plan on being better next year, for sure."

Yormark, on the possibility of the College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams: "When 24 became part of the conversation, we've done our own conference due diligence around it, and we think it might be a great fit for us. We discussed it most recently in our spring business meeting with our coaches. Across the board, they liked it, and we continue to have those conversations with our ADs and our presidents.

"We do need to understand the economics. Is there a marketplace to go to 24? ... So as we consider 24, we've got to look at what we have and what potentially we might gain and ultimately make the best decision for the Big 12, but everything is on the table."

By the numbers

1:ÌýArizona won its first AllState Commissioner's Cup, which is awarded to the Big 12 school that excels in athletics and academics. UA athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois accepted the award on the opening day of Big 12 Media Days. Arizona State won the first-ever Commissioner's Cup last year. 

4: New head coaches in the Big 12 this season — Eric Morris (Oklahoma State), Collin Klein (Kansas State), Jimmy Rogers (Iowa State) and Morgan Scalley (Utah). 

9:ÌýTotal number of FIFA World Cup matches held in Dallas this summer. The theme of Big 12 Media Days is "football meets fútbol." 

14: Percent of Big 12 student-athletes who hail from countries outside the U.S. Six of the 16 Big 12 schools have campuses outside the U.S. The Big 12 will have two football games overseas this season. TCU opens the season against North Carolina in Dublin on Aug. 26, then Arizona State faces Kansas in the Union Jack Classic on Sept. 16 at Wembley Stadium in London.  

85,000:ÌýThe Big 12 championship game drew more than 85,000 fans last season, the most attended conference championship game in Power 4 history. Television viewership increased by 39% from the previous Big 12 title game. 

He said it

"If I'm not in the game, they're probably not paying enough." — Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, on why he doesn't allow the "College Football 27" video game to use his likeness