You do realize that Pitt and Louisville are state schools, right? There is no chance Yormak views UConn as being ahead of the schools the B12 just invited, or we would have been invited. Cinci played in the football playoff two years ago. Houston has recent history of success. UCF brings Florida recruiting visibility. BYU, despite their brand, is the worst of those 4.
You're thinking basketball. Yormark may think it is undervalued and it is, but it's still way below football.
Yeah Pitt and Louisville are second fiddle to PSU and UK in their own cities. So while Wikipedia might say they are state schools, for purposes of this conversation they really aren't.
Also, Yormark came to the Big 12 after the additions of Cincinatti, Houston, and UCF...so no UConn would not have been invited then if he viewed UConn to be ahead of them. He wasn't there to invite UConn. Your recruiting point isn't bad...but recent success in football is a shortsighted factor as those schools are not football powers and never will be. They are also rans in their states that can never replace Texas and Oklahoma brands in football. UConn has a better chance of being a big brand program
in football because they
could dominate recruiting in a state/region (see something like is going on in baseball). Cincinatti, Houston, and UCF will never dominate their regions in football recruiting becasue there are MUCH bigger fish in their ponds.
And no...I'm not thinking just basketball. I'm trying to think like a conference executive who knows Texas and Oklahoma can't be replaced by equal football powers. I'm thinking brand, support, eyeballs. UConn sports in general already beats those programs and the ones I mentioned from the ACC. UConn football has the potential to be far bigger than those programs in a real conference. It was on its way to that before Big East football imploded.