RedRaiderRoundtable.com's exclusive interview with veteran reporter and radio personality Sean Dillon highlights the tension between the Big 12 Conference and the Texas Tech football program.
LUBBOCK - The Big 12 Conference, its member institutions, and media affiliates convened at the annual football media days in Frisco this week, and Texas Tech, as it has been for much of the offseason following its involvement with Brendan Sorsby's eligibility, was at the center of attention.
The two-day event's most talked-about moment was a press conference exchange between a Red Raiders reporter and the conference's commissioner, Brett Yormark, on Tuesday.
Ironically, the question that sparked the viral clip, the reporter says, was never actually about Sorsby.
Yormark's reaction, however, was indicative of the strained relationship between the Big 12 and its reigning football champions.
"Let's just call it what it is," Sean Dillon told RedRaiderRoundtable.com. "The Big 12 and Texas Tech is at war. Brett Yormark grits his teeth last December when he had to hold the championship and hand it to Joey McGuire.
"In my mind, he's going to have to grit his teeth and hold his emotions when he hands the championship this year to the Red Raiders again. Because I think this team is better than last year's team."
'Stand Up, Ask That Question Again'
Dillon, a radio personality with over three decades in the industry, was in Frisco covering the Red Raiders for Rockin' Pregame, a pregame broadcast hosted every Saturday in Lubbock.
His question to Yormark - which he was asked to repeat as the commissioner repositioned himself on stage to "give you the answer I want to give you" - read as follows:
"Texas Tech had gotten fined over tortillas, and tortillas were banned outright. OSU paddles broke a noisemaker rule and gets a tradition exemption. Sorsby never played a down for the Red Raiders. The Big 12 sued them anyways, while Cincinnati has yet to be touched. You're selling 'greater than 12,' why should Texas Tech fans believe it?"
After Dillon rose to repeat the question, Yormark turned and began walking the other way, pointing to the reporter, and answered the following:
"I didn't say 'greater than 12'; you misquoted me. I said we're going forward as 16 strong, and that's my answer to your question. But thank you for that question, appreciate it."
Dillon’s question first references the conference's history of uneven punishments over fan traditions, such as Texas Tech's former ritual of throwing tortillas onto the field during kickoffs and Oklahoma State's paddle-clapping noisemakers. Tech was compelled to alter its gameday policies following a 15-to-1 vote by conference members to ban the tortilla tossing. Oklahoma State's tradition, however, was met with a less strict rule that allowed for an exemption, in addition to in-game penalty enforcements, not institutional fines.
Then, Dillon hit on what has become one of the biggest college sports controversies in the modern era: transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby's ineligibility due to gambling violations, which was temporarily bypassed by a court-issued injunction, then proved moot as the Big 12 threatened legal action that could potentially sanction Texas Tech if Sorsby played for the team in the 2026 season.
Days after the threat, and with a separate deadline looming, Sorsby chose to enter his name in the NFL supplemental draft and part ways with the Red Raiders’ program.
This week was Yormark's first public appearance since the situation's fallout.
The commissioner faced one other question on the topic, which came prior to Dillon's.
"Today is not the time to address that issue," Yormark said in response. "Today is about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools."
"I want to emphasize," Dillon says on his drive out of the Metroplex, "Mine was not a Sorsby question. My question was, with the fracture of the relationship with Texas Tech, what is the relationship now?
"The basis of my thinking is, 'What does he have to say to Red Raider fans?'"
Dillon noted that the commissioner's side-stepping answer (the reporter at one point joking, 'What answer?'), and his body language of walking away mid-response were signs that "he was pissed off, he was mad, and he didn't want to answer the question."
'I Did My Job'
The internet's reaction to the exchange was somewhat split. Some people disagreed with Yormark dismissing the question outright, and others criticized Dillon's asking of it, to the point where the reporter says he received numerous hostile comments aimed at himself and his colleagues.
One thing that is indisputable is the moment's virality; the clip above has garnered nearly two million views in just 24 hours, emerging as the most memorable sequence of the event.
"That's not on me," Dillon says about the clip's rapid online circulation. "What it is, it's on Yormark's reaction."
The commissioner's answer regarding a "misquote" of "greater than 12" rather than "16 strong," Dillon cites, is also not completely truthful, at least in considering the conference's messaging in recent years.
The reporter calls back to when the Big 12 welcomed new members in 2023, and the organization rolled out marketing that featured similar language. For example, this TikTok video with the caption, "We've always been greater than 12."
"Everyone keeps talking about this relationship. A relationship can be mended," Dillon says in regards to the Big 12 and Texas Tech, despite these "facts" of apparent unequal violation enforcements.
"That's an indication that something's broken. So, all I was asking for him was to explain the pattern. He couldn't."
Dillon suggests that his mentioning of Cincinnati, where Sorsby played for two seasons during his admitted gambling addiction, "got his attention."
"If you look at the reaction, and how the Cincinnati reference got his eyes up, ... that immediately brings the question, 'Did the commissioner know that Cincinnati was going to have a letter of inquiry into it, and did not want that coming out during Big 12 Media Days?' That's a question I don't have an answer to."
On Wednesday, hours before this conversation with Dillon, multiple reports confirmed that the NCAA had sent an inquiry to the University of Cincinnati centered on Sorsby's time in the Bearcats' football program.
"An inquiry letter is not uncommon and doesn't necessarily signal wrongdoing, but it is often the start of an investigative process over possible rules violations, one that often is a collaborative effort with the school itself," says Yahoo! Sports reporter Ross Dellenger.
READ MORE: Top Storylines of Texas Tech Media Days
In the end, Dillon rests in the belief that "it wasn't me that mattered," in the exchange with Yormark, and the reason it spread so vastly online. His presence was beside the point.
"It's my job to ask the question. I know my role," stated Dillon, who said he had also received waves of supportive messages since Tuesday’s presser, including those from people he works for and with.
"My job is to ask questions and get people to react and respond. And last night, yesterday morning, I did my job."
Dillon said Yormark never made any further contact with him after the press conference.
"He walked right by me afterward. Didn’t apologize. Didn’t say thanks for coming. Nothing," Dillon said in a statement on social media.
"I serve West Texas. Not Lubbock’s critics, not other schools’ fans. My people."
'Speak To West Texas'
Dillon said he spent several days writing different versions of the question that ultimately made its way to the press conference in Frisco. Despite being a longtime resident of Lubbock and a graduate of Texas Tech, he reiterated that his job is to be thorough and honest in his reporting.
"I gave four facts, ... and gave him an opportunity to speak to West Texas," Dillon said. "I represent the Red Raiders, and I have relationships with Texas Tech. I have relationships in the Lubbock community. ... I'm not a fan-boy; I talk to and represent my listeners.
"My listeners are who said, 'Who's gonna ask Yormark why Cincinnati hasn't been punished? Who's gonna ask Yormark why the rules seem to change for the Red Raiders; is it because they're winning?'"
"This was never intended to be a 'gotcha' question," Dillon added. "It was, 'What do you have to say to West Texas?' Because that right there is the key. It's not a matter of re-litigating the past. I was asking for the fans that show up every Saturday in Lubbock. They deserved an answer."
That answer?
It seems it will have to wait until next year's gathering.
One where there is a high possibility that the Red Raiders could roll into town as champions again, with a target on their backs just as large as before.
