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The Big 12 has “paused” conversations on UConn joining the conference, according to a statement released by commissioner Brett Yormark on Thursday.
“As Commissioner, it is my responsibility to explore a variety of value-creating opportunities on behalf of the Big 12,” Yormark said. “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.”
Conversations reportedly took place over the past month, with UConn presenting to Yormark on how it would bolster its ailing football program for play in a power conference. The Big 12 has been rumored to be considering offering the Huskies a spot in the Big 12 since Yormark, a former Brooklyn Nets executive, took the helm of the conference. Yormark has long seen value in boosting the Big 12’s basketball marketing power, as well as bringing a conference footprint to the media market in the Northeast. His Big 12 colleagues have been more skeptical, however, given that UConn is not a football powerhouse.
Yormark still sees this same value in UConn, a source tells Front Office Sports. But ultimately, his constituents within the conference were torn, and he decided to halt the conversations with the sense it wasn’t the right timing.
(It likely didn’t help that UConn’s football team lost 50–7 in its season opener to Maryland.)
UConn confirmed in a statement Thursday that it had discussions with the Big 12, and the conference, not the school, was the one to pull out. “We did engage in exploratory dialogue with the Big 12,” its athletic director, Dave Benedict, said. “Ultimately, the Big 12 determined that it will pause on conversations about membership expansion.”
There are myriad pros and cons if UConn, which has spent years pulling its athletic department out of a financial deficit, leaves the Big East. It would receive the marketing power and visibility of a power conference, and an opportunity to play conference basketball at a level at or above that of the Big East.
But the school would face a $15 million exit fee for 27 months’ notice of departure, a source previously confirmed to FOS—a number that would likely be higher if UConn wanted to leave earlier. UConn also may not receive a full share of the Big 12’s media-rights revenue for six or seven years, given its football program reportedly wasn’t slated to join the conference until 2031, according to another source.
For now, however, those considerations are on hold.
