The Big 12 and UConn remain in serious negotiations about the Huskies joining the league as its newest expansion member, multiple sources tell Yahoo Sports.
In a marriage that could bring together arguably the country’s strongest basketball conference and perhaps the nation’s best hoops program, UConn officials visited with Big 12 athletic administrators in Dallas last week. Though nothing is imminent, the in-person presentation is a sign of the serious nature of the discussions.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is set to make a similar presentation to the league’s presidents next week. Expansion requires a three-fourths vote, or 12 of the 16 members.
In the latest version of the deal, UConn would join the conference as a member in all sports except football starting, at latest, in 2026. Contingent upon the school meeting certain investment thresholds in the sport, UConn football would join the Big 12 in 2031.
While the Huskies are not expected to receive a full distribution share from the league, the move would increase their financial situation and pair the school’s elite basketball program with a power conference brand. The Huskies men’s and women’s basketball programs have won a combined 16 national championships since 1999.
The move, if it is finalized, would be a blow for the Big East. UConn was an original member of the old Big East before competing in the American Athletic Conference and then moving back into the new Big East in 2020.
The Big 12 and UConn is an unusual geographic match. The New England-based school is 1,700 miles from the Big 12’s Dallas headquarters and 500 miles from the closest Big 12 school, West Virginia. However, the league’s basketball prowess, with heavyweights Kansas and Houston, sets up an ideal home for the Huskies as college athletics launches into a new revenue-sharing world with athletes.
Football will have to wait. While it did advance to a bowl game two years ago, the UConn football program has not eclipsed the eight-win mark in more than a decade. As part of any agreement with the conference, the school would need to increase its investment in the football program to a certain degree before joining the Big 12, at earliest, when the league’s new television deal begins in 2031.
A football move is imperative for the school. As the last remaining independent football program in the country — excluding outlier Notre Dame — UConn receives the smallest portion of revenue from the College Football Playoff.
The pursuit of the Huskies aligns with the aggressive nature of Yormark, who’s leading the league’s latest expansion campaign. The Big 12 has added eight teams over the last two years after the departure of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC.
The conference is pursuing more than just new schools. The league is in deep negotiations with Allstate Insurance as a new naming rights sponsor that would completely alter the conference’s name from Big 12 to Allstate 12. Yormark is also discussing a private equity deal with multiple potential partners, offering them a percentage stake in the conference for an immediate cash infusion of as much as $50 million to each school.
The UConn deal would be the latest summer realignment move over the last four years, joining the Pac-12 collapse last August, USC and UCLA’s announcement to the Big Ten in 2022 and Oklahoma and Texas in 2021.
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