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 became public two weeks ago, after school officials pitched the Huskies to conference athletic directors.
Big 12 university presidents and chancellors heard from the conference’s media consultants last week on the value of adding the Huskies, a Big East Conference member that has won the last two men's basketball national titles, a powerhouse women's program and an independent football program that has floundered for more than a decade.
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Yormark has long been interested in adding the East Coast men’s and women’s basketball juggernaut with a massive following in the New York area to a conference that spans from Orlando, Florida, to Tempe, Arizona.
The plan called for adding UConn in most sports while providing a six-year runway for the school to invest in and improve its football program.
The idea was not embraced at a time when there seem to be other priorities, most notably the implementation of a new revenue-sharing model in major college sports and the financial impact of a $2.78 billion settlement of antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and major conferences.
Dog House
UConn Director of Athletics David Benedict said in a statement, “Ultimately, the Big 12 determined that it will pause on conversations about membership expansion.”
“No matter our conference home, our mission has been, and will always be, to provide an exceptional academic and athletic experience to the outstanding young men and women who proudly wear the UConn uniform. It is our North Star, and we must never forget the shining principle which guides our everyday work,” Benedict added.
You can read the full statement from Benedict here.
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.
