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.
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 seems to be other priorities,
most notably 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.
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.