ARLINGTON — The Big 12 Conference, with four new additions, is bigger than ever. It has so many teams, in fact, that a traditional college football Saturday might not be enough to contain the conference's television options.

Second-year commissioner Brett Yormark is open to having more games on Thursday — and even Friday, a high-school football niche that major colleges have generally avoided.

"It's very hot during the summer months, especially in the (early) fall," Yormark said. "So playing on a Friday night versus Saturday morning does have its benefits. And when you think about the tonnage of college football on air on a Saturday provides a lot of opportunity for us to kind of build our profile on a Friday night."

Yormark made the comments Wednesday at the start of the two-day Big 12 media days. However, he told an assemblage of reporters at AT&T Stadium putting more games on non-traditional nights isn't an easy call.

"There's a lot that goes into that decision," he said. "It's not just about visibility. It's all about the fans and what's right for our schools and their campuses, so all that is part of the consideration."

Regardless of when games are played, the Big 12 extending agreements with ESPN and Fox was one of Yormark's key achievements in his first year on the job.

"Let's not forget during last year's media days event, I announced that the Big 12 was open for business," Yormark said. "Since then, we've jumped ahead of the line and extended TV agreements with existing partners through 2031, creating tremendous stability and clarity for this conference."

"That's the most important thing that he could have gotten accomplished to solidify our conference financially," Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said, "because without that, we don't have anything."

Visit to Lubbock: Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark: 'This conference is no longer going to be stagnant'

Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston became Big 12 members on July 1, making for a 14-team conference this school year. The conference will revert to 12 teams next July when Oklahoma and Texas leave for the Southeastern Conference. Yormark called it "a win-win for all parties" that the Sooners and the Longhorns negotiated an exit one year earlier than grant-of-rights agreements stipulated, making financial concessions to the programs staying behind.

The pending departures of UT and OU to the SEC and Southern California and UCLA to the Big Ten have led to the latter conferences being characterized as a power-two hierarchy at the expense of a structure commonly referred to as a power-five.

"I'm not really competing with the other power-five conferences," Yormark said. "I want the Big 12 to be the best version of ourselves. If we can do that, we're in a great place.

"It's not about ranking us within the power-five. But I can tell you this: There's been no better time to be a part of the Big 12 than right now."

More: Want to save Texas Tech-UT series? Better act now

The extended TV agreements and the accelerated UT and OU withdrawals were two of 13 bullet-pointed first-year achievements shown on a big screen behind Yormark. Among the others is the launch of Big 12 Mexico, a plan to play games and market the conference south of the border; gaining nearly 100,000 new followers on social media; and taking 11 coaches to New York City's Rucker Park for an upcoming clinic.

Yormark says it's part of making the Big 12 hipper, younger and cooler.

"We're connecting to culture in ways we haven't done before," he said. "... Our goal is to connect with Gen Z (those younger than age 30). We want to get on the consciousness not of just current student-athletes, but future student-athletes and getting younger is one way to do that."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Brett Yormark open to more Big 12 Conference Thursday, Friday games