Something noticeable happened a few days ago in the Big 12 Conference. Commissioner Brett Yormark openly said he hoped Texas Tech football would “take care of business” when it played Texas at the end of the season. Yormark said he would be in Austin for the game.

Yormark ditched the diplomatic approach and made himself the villain for Texas Longhorn fans. The message couldn’t be any clearer: There’s no love for Texas from the Big 12 office on the Longhorns’ way out the door to the SEC in 2024.

Longhorns Wire has more:

“The Big 12 isn’t going to do the Texas Longhorns any favors in 2023. We could have figured as much. Nevertheless, we didn’t expect to hear what seemed like favoritism from Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. We will let you decide if that’s what we got on Wednesday.

“Yormark made strong comments in support of the Red Raiders in a recent speech to Texas Tech faithful.”

No pretense. Yormark is making it plain.

What does any of this have to do with USC? Nothing is being explicitly said, but we can all put two and two together: The Trojans aren’t going to get a whole lot of love from the Pac-12 this year. Even last year, they were jobbed on a terrible roughing-the-passer call against Utah in October which significantly affected the outcome of that game.

If the Trojans want to make the College Football Playoff, they might need to lead games by 10 points in the fourth quarter, so that if one bad call happens, they will still win by three. If they lead by four points in the fourth quarter and one bad call happens, they could lose on a late touchdown.

Here’s more on the Yormark story and the Big 12’s disavowal of neutrality. This ain’t Switzerland, folks:

VIDEO

TEXAS BRACES FOR IMPACT

Longhorns Wire asked the obvious question in response to Yormark’s heel turn:

“The quote is an alarming and seemingly partial statement. While it doesn’t mean the league will tip the scales against Texas on the football field, it certainly draws suspicion. Why is a conference commissioner encouraging the head coach of one team in his league to take care of business against another league opponent?”

This is amazing drama, but again, USC needs to take note of this. The Trojans have to be ready for the breaks to go against them this year.

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HUMAN NATURE, NOT A CONSPIRACY

It might not be a conspiracy, but it is — and can be — a product of human nature: If a team is leaving a conference and is seen as being responsible for the suffering/splintering/possible extinction of that conference, human beings could make 50-50 calls against that team. It wouldn’t be a rigged system, but if there’s a coin flip-level call, USC might be less inclined to get those calls in its favor.

PAC-12 REFS INEPTITUDE

It’s not a conspiracy when Pac-12 officiating is simply very, very bad.

Nevertheless, it reinforces the idea that USC needs to increase its margin for error and have a small cushion which can absorb the blows of the bad calls it might receive this season, before it goes to the Big Ten.

FRESH OFFICIATING MESS

We had to write about a new Pac-12 officiating debacle this past weekend in the fourth quarter of the USC-San Jose State game. Incompetence, not bias, is the worst problem affecting Pac-12 officiating, but USC has to be on guard against this incompetence affecting the Trojans more than any other team in the league.

POLITE CHAT

LOS ANGELES TIMES COLUMN FROM 2022

Last year, after Texas was hit with 14 penalties in a game and Oklahoma State wasn’t penalized at all, a Los Angeles Times columnist explored this question of conference hostility to departing members such as Texas in the Big 12 and USC in the Pac-12.

Brady McCollough made the connection between the 2022 Texas-Oklahoma State game in the Big 12 and the USC-Utah Pac-12 game from October of that same year:

“Maybe I’m just a little sensitive after my trip to Salt Lake City last weekend. USC fans know it as the one where the Trojans led Utah by 14 points three different times in the first half but lost to the Utes, 43-42, on a two-point conversion in the final minute.”

The roughing-the-passer calls that went against USC were hard to shake or ignore for any Trojan fan. USC has to prepare for the worst.

LINCOLN RILEY KNOWS THE FEELING

Remember: Oklahoma and Texas announced their departure to the SEC in the summer of 2021. When Oklahoma played Oklahoma State late in the 2021 season, the Sooners and Lincoln Riley did not get any breaks from the refs:

We wrote:

“In the second half, Oklahoma wasn’t necessarily wronged, but every 50-50 call went against the Sooners.

“The reality that Oklahoma was heading for the SEC and leaving the Big 12 crossed my mind. Oklahoma fans and bloggers were thinking the same thing.”

Riley faced this tension last year in the USC-Utah October game. He might face this problem even more in 2023.

TEXAS FAN REACTIONS TO BRETT YORMARK OPENLY ROOTING FOR TEXAS TECH

GROWING BELIEF

BUT HE DOESN'T SEEM TO CARE

LINES ARE BEING DRAWN

MESSAGE BOARD FUN!

LONGHORN AND SOONER FANS UNITED

OH THE POSSIBILITIES

LONGHORN LOATHING

TEXAS TECH FANS, ON THE OTHER HAND, LOVE THIS

UNDERLYING CONCERN FOR TEXAS

TEXAS A&M WRITER WEIGHS IN

THIS RINGS HOLLOW -- PAY ATTENTION, USC

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire