Brett Yormark, the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, said the league is pausing conversations about possibly inviting the University of Connecticut to join its membership.
“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 released Thursday. “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 past two NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournaments and has a powerhouse women’s basketball program, but its independent football program has floundered for more than a decade.
UConn athletic director David Benedict also released a statement, saying the school did engage with the Big 12 as the administration attempts to to put the school in “the very best position for future success.”
“I encourage all who care deeply about the Huskies to pause and reflect. Certainly, it is flattering to be courted; it says a lot about UConn and what others think of us,” he said. “Further, we have enjoyed tremendous success since our return to the Big East in 2020, which has included 36 conference championships (across all conferences in which we are affiliated) and, of course, our back-to-back NCAA men’s basketball titles.
“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.”
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 with UCF to Tempe with Arizona State. The Big 12 has become the strongest and deepest men’s basketball conference in the country in recent years, and Yormark, a former NBA executive, believes there is untapped value in that sport.
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 for most of its sports after leaving the American Athletic Conference. The Huskies have been a Football Bowl Subdivision 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 NCAA Division I titles, more than any other school.
With Army joining the AAC this year and the University of Massachusetts scheduled to join the Mid-American Conference in 2025, UConn and Notre Dame will be the only remaining independents in major college football.
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 are other priorities facing schools, most notably implementation of a new revenue-sharing model in major college sports and grasping the financial impact of a pending $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, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12, which has lost most of its members.