The UConn Huskies and Big 12 mutually agreed to pause conversations about having the back-to-back men’s basketball national champions join the conference, according to a press release from commissioner Brett Yormark.
As commissioner, it is my responsibility to explore a variety of value-creating opportunities on behalf of the Big 12. 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.
UConn athletic director David Benedict released a statement as well, seeming to contradict the idea that the decision was mutual:
“Undoubtedly, many of you have followed recent media reports about the Big 12’s renewed interest in UConn as a conference member. It is always our objective to put UConn in the very best position for future success, so we did engage in exploratory dialogue with the Big 12. Ultimately, the Big 12 determined that it will pause on conversations about membership expansion.”
If this story looks familiar, it is because the sequence of events is eerily similar to what happened almost exactly one year ago between the Big 12 and the Gonzaga Bulldogs out of the WCC.
Gonzaga and the Big 12 engaged in conversation, Yormark publicly made it clear he believes Gonzaga is a value add to the conference, the talks seemed to progress quickly, and then ultimately fell apart with enough backlash from voting parties who wanted to first focus on integrating the eight new programs added over the past two years before adding again.
Does this mean the Big 12 will never accept UConn, or Gonzaga? Not necessarily, but there are enough dissenters within the conference presidents and athletic directors to keep this from happening in the short term.
Yormark tried and failed to make Gonzaga a member in 2023, getting feedback that the timing was too soon, and tried again a year later hoping an even bigger brand – in a more appealing market coming off back-to-back national titles and with a football program, albeit a bad one – would generate the necessary votes to expand.
No go once again, and now the wait continues for both the Zags and Huskies.