The Big 12 Announces a Pause on Any Expansion Including UConn
STILLWATER – Thursday Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark issued a statement saying that the Big 12 was taking a hiatus from looking at adding any new schools to the league including the much discussed and, apparently, flirted with University of Connecticut.
“As Commissioner, it is my responsibility to explore a variety of value-creating opportunities on behalf of the Big 12,” Yormak said in the 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.”
Our sources at Pokes Report from multiple original Big 12 institutions claimed that the Big 12 Presidents were not eager at all to feed another mouth with the expected costs coming of the House vs. NCAA settlement and revenue sharing with student-athletes. Another concern is the difference in conference revenue with the SEC and Big Ten and working to bridge that gap. It made no sense to bring in another school that without promises from television partners that they could pay their way and make money for the conference. UConn has powerhouse men’s and women’s basketball programs but their combined worth doesn’t add up to a Top 25 or even potential Top 25 football program, which UConn does not have.
David Benedict, the athletic director at Connecticut informed his fanbase on Thursday of the halt in discussions with possibly joining the Big 12. UConn is in the Big East in basketball and all sports other than football and men’s and women’s ice hockey. They are an independent in football.
“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,” Benedict wrote in the letter to the Huskies fans. “Ultimately, the Big 12 determined that it will pause on conversations about membership expansion.”
This could be revisited but for now with the instability and uncertainty of the finances for the future in college athletics, holding is probably the best strategy.