The Big 12 has made major moves to further strengthen the football side of their conference in the last year, however, they may be far from done and could look to make some impactful agreements to bolster their basketball standings next.
There has been a great deal of shuffling among the power conferences in college athletics. Most notable is the apparent downfall of the Pac-12. The top conference on the West Coast for the last century has been pillaged over the last year. UCLA and USC in 2022 were the first major schools from what has been a mass exodus as they agreed to take their well-known college sports brands to the Big 10 next year.
However, the Big 10 is not alone in persuading Pac-12 schools to leave their long-time conference and the Big 12 has also been able to land some notable schools from out west. In recent months, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah have all agreed to bring their teams to the Big 12 in 2024. While many of those schools have strong programs in multiple sports, the majority of them are headed to their new home to improve the college football offering for future media rights deals.
Yet, that doesn’t seem like it will be enough for the Big 12. Last year, commissioner Brett Yorkmark revealed he had spoken to some notable schools with powerhouse basketball programs about possibly coming to his conference. However, things have certainly changed since then with the conference set to have 16 teams next season.
Big 12 has reportedly restarted talks with Gonzaga
On Monday, The Messenger revealed that Yorkmark has restarted conversations he had in 2022, and that “Gonzaga and the Big 12 have resumed top-level discussions about the possibility of the school joining the conference in all sports, perhaps as early as next year.”
UConn was also a school that Yorkmark reportedly spoke with last year, however, The Messenger claims that new discussions have not yet been restarted with them. But, Front Office Sports speculates that it would make a lot of sense for the Big 12 to begin fresh conversations with UConn since adding Gonzaga would bring the conference to 17 teams, and an even 18 would be preferred for the Big 12 tournament at the end of the season.
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UConn is the reigning men’s college basketball champion, and if they joined the Big 12 it would mean the conference has three of the most recent national champions along with Kansas and Baylor.