The Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark announced Thursday that the conference is pausing conversations about possibly inviting UConn to the league.
“As commissioner, it is my responsibility to explore a variety of value-creating opportunities on behalf of the Big 12,” Yormark said in a statement. “Following detailed discussions with my conference colleagues alongside UConn leadership, we have jointly decided to pause our conversations at this time. We will instead focus our attention and resources to ushering in this new era of college athletics.”
The Big 12’s rekindled conversations with UConn of the Big East became public two weeks ago, after school officials pitched the Huskies to conference athletic directors at a meeting in Dallas.
Big 12 university presidents and chancellors heard from the conference’s media consultants last week on the value of adding the Huskies. UConn has won the last two men’s basketball national titles and has a powerhouse women’s basketball program, but its independent football program has floundered for more than a decade.
Yormark has long been interested in adding the East Coast school with a massive following in the New York area to a conference that spans from Orlando, Florida, to Tempe, Arizona. The Big 12 has become the strongest and deepest basketball conference in the country in recent years, and Yormark, a former NBA executive, believes there is untapped value in college basketball.
The plan called for adding UConn in most sports as soon as possible, while providing a six-year runway for the school to invest in and improve its football program.
UConn rejoined the Big East in 2020 for most of its sports after leaving the American Athletic Conference. The Huskies have been a football independent since, going 10-27 with one bowl appearance. But men’s basketball has been revitalized, with coach Dan Hurley leading the Huskies to their fifth and sixth NCAA championships. The UConn women’s program has won 11 national titles, more than any other school.
With Army joining the AAC this year and UMass scheduled to join the Mid-American Conference in 2025, UConn and Notre Dame will be the only remaining major college football independents.
Adding UConn was billed as a cost-neutral move for current members of the Big 12. The conference’s new six-year agreements with ESPN and Fox kick in next year and will pay members about $31.7 million per school annually.
The idea was not embraced at a time when there seems to be other priorities, most notably implementation of a new revenue-sharing model in major college sports and grasping the financial impact of a $2.78 billion settlement of antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and major conferences.
The Big 12 just began its first year as a 16-school conference after adding Arizona State, Arizona, Colorado and Utah from the failed Pac-12.
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