Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[CCSU97]

I wouldn’t rule out an offer that hasn’t been made, and thus I don’t know the specifics of, but it’s hard to see a deal for basketball only that would work for both us and the XII. The amount of money it would take for us to cover the buy out to the Big East and then make enough money from the move to cover the extra travel and the fact that, short term, I have little doubt our fan base would rather stay where we are with some drivable road games, would be far, far more than anyone has ever considered paying a team just for basketball.

So it doesn’t sound plausible to me, but whether it makes sense or not would depend ont he particular offer.

100% Correct. I also assume "basketball only" is really "olympic sports" as I know of no other example of any conference offering any school a home only for basketball. This is likely similar to the Notre Dame/ACC deal.

1) The cost to leave the BE for Olympic sports is a big nut for a program with existing cash flow issues

2) Big XII doesn't sponsor 3 key sports - MSOCC, FH, and WLAX - UConn has won NC in 2 of those sports. UConn would likely have to pay to park those sports in the BE, A-10 or CAA as an associate member.

3) Obviously football remains Independent and the school is no better positioned for future conference realignments. Maybe you get a few home/home deals, but that's unlikely.

4) The revenue needed from the Big XII to cover Big East exit fees, associate membership in other conferences, and increased travel is likely not on the table.

 

[OkaForPrez]

After watching the tang video, it has me thinking the big 12 might be about to take a bite out of the big East.

You wouldn’t have to take too big of a bite for us to not feel good about staying behind.

Villanova

Just that name alone and we’re already uncomfortable.

Villanova and one other traditional power

Georgetown under Cooley?
St John’s under pitino?

Starts to change how you feel instantly.

 

[Sea Goat]

Yuck Formark- no hoops w/out FB- if if its that important then he can bring FB along too.

Grab the pitchforks if that happens...
Our FB needs the support - BB is set and with 5 Nattys can go anywhere. If FB was banned tomorrow (like bullfighting), for conference purposes, UConn would be in the top 3-4 teams nationwide. Trouble is FB drives the bus. Who the "F" does the Big 12 think it is? We don't need them in BB, we need them in FB.

Joining a conference is like getting married. There is the good and there is the bad. I been at it for 40 years and I know one thing - the good has to outweigh the bad. Taking this Big 12, BB only deal, leaves no "good" for UConn. It would be like ending up with 2 mother in laws who each work a 12 hour shift...)

 

[GG]

After watching the tang video, it has me thinking the big 12 might be about to take a bite out of the big East.

You wouldn’t have to take too big of a bite for us to not feel good about staying behind.

Villanova

Just that name alone and we’re already uncomfortable.

Villanova and one other traditional power

Georgetown under Cooley?
St John’s under pitino?

Starts to change how you feel instantly.

So far Greg Flugar has been spot on. He indicated that UCONN and Zags were considered for bball only (but that UCONN was also seriously considered as a full add). He has also mentioned that SJU has shown interest. BY going for MSG???

 

[WestHartHusk]

After watching the tang video, it has me thinking the big 12 might be about to take a bite out of the big East.

You wouldn’t have to take too big of a bite for us to not feel good about staying behind.

Villanova

Just that name alone and we’re already uncomfortable.

Villanova and one other traditional power

Georgetown under Cooley?
St John’s under pitino?

Starts to change how you feel instantly.

Itd be the cherry on top if Big East schools use our buyout to f us.

 

[OkaForPrez]

So far Greg Flugar has been spot on. He indicated that UCONN and Zags were considered for bball only (but that UCONN was also seriously considered as a full add). He has also mentioned that SJU has shown interest. BY going for MSG???

Yormark doesn’t have to take many schools to cut the heart out of the Big East.

I’m definitely spiraling into conspiracy theory time right now but what if Cooley was a canary in the coal mine?

 

[coachcap]

There will be one last tectonic plate to shift in the next handful of years: the ACC, which will likely lose its top 6-8 brands to the B1G/SEC/Big12. So, the scenarios are:

1 - wait it out for the next handful of years as we are now and hope to slide into the remaining ACC schools and be in the fourth best conference with schools like BC, Wake, Syracuse, etc.

2- take a basketball/Olympic sport arrangement with the Big12 that hopefully includes a football scheduling arrangement to augment the rest of our Independent schedule. I'd imagine that upon showing well in football we'd be taken into the Big12 when they expand past 16 teams.

I think UConn should bet on itself and take #2. Mora should get us there, imo.

Pulling basketball from the BE will hurt many of us emotionally, but given where the media companies are at in terms of merging big brand schools, I don't think the Big East will thrive in such an environment. From the women's BB perspective, I think being in the BE and AAC has not exactly helped the program as the rest of the nation began to place more emphasis on women's BB and a move to the Big12 will help bolster recruiting (not that they need that much help, obviously but when Geno retires you never know what then occurs).

If AD David Benedict is using a decision tree to drive his moves, I think with what has happened this week (i.e. a HUGE consolidation to a P3/P4 in mere days - something that previously took years to happen) a partial Big12 offer has to be accepted.

Previously I did not think that would be even something we'd consider, but with what transpired this week, I think if we don't do this in 5 years we'd all look back and say we blew it by not doing it.

According to the Jason Scheer comment last night, the potential invite to Gonzaga & UConn is for just basketball, NOT basketball/olympic sports. Acceptance of those terms is a huge headache for the athletic department.

 

[mike012]

obviously basketball doesn’t matter in conference realignment. If we are going to get into a P4. We will need to spend in football and less everywhere else. If we stayed in the Aac and spent money on a top tier football coach and not RE2.0 we would already be in the Big12. We had some really really really bad football teams and unfortunately everyone saw it. We could win 3 basketball titles in a row and it won’t matter.

 

[ninety-nine]

According to the Jason Scheer comment last night, the potential invite to Gonzaga & UConn is for just basketball, NOT basketball/olympic sports. Acceptance of those terms is a huge headache for the athletic department.

What a joke. I wonder if our new masters would require us to wear GPS trackers as well.

 

[businesslawyer]

Yormark doesn’t have to take many schools to cut the heart out of the Big East.

I’m definitely spiraling into conspiracy theory time right now but what if Cooley was a canary in the coal mine?

I’ll say this — Yormark just eliminated a major competitor for football and basketball dollars from the marketplace. Would I put it past him to try to eliminate a basketball competitor from the marketplace as well? (That was rhetorical by the way.)

Bringing in schools that as loss leaders for the purpose of eliminating competitors is clearly illegal under antitrust laws, by the way, but for whatever reason the DOJ to date has clearly not given a damn about college athletics.

 

[djct1999]

After watching the tang video, it has me thinking the big 12 might be about to take a bite out of the big East.

You wouldn’t have to take too big of a bite for us to not feel good about staying behind.

Villanova

Just that name alone and we’re already uncomfortable.

Villanova and one other traditional power

Georgetown under Cooley?
St John’s under pitino?

Starts to change how you feel instantly.

If a power conference wants a basketball only school from the big east, it starts and ends with UConn.

 

[noeynox]

I’ll say this — Yormark just eliminated a major competitor for football and basketball dollars from the marketplace. Would I put it past him to try to eliminate a basketball competitor from the marketplace as well? (That was rhetorical by the way.)

Bringing in schools that as loss leaders for the purpose of eliminating competitors is clearly illegal under antitrust laws, by the way, but for whatever reason the DOJ to date has clearly not given a damn about college athletics.

But wasn't this the exact thing the ACC did to the Big East FB side? I mean the playbook was already written.

 

[ninety-nine]

I’ll say this — Yormark just eliminated a major competitor for football and basketball dollars from the marketplace. Would I put it past him to try to eliminate a basketball competitor from the marketplace as well? (That was rhetorical by the way.)

Bringing in schools that as loss leaders for the purpose of eliminating competitors is clearly illegal under antitrust laws, by the way, but for whatever reason the DOJ to date has clearly not given a damn about college athletics.

Yormark deserves credit, of course, but the Pac-12 was really destroyed by the departure of USC/UCLA to the B1G and the lousy Apple broadcasting rights offer that predictably followed. The Big XII was just in position to scoop up the goodies once the piñata inevitably burst.

 

[OkaForPrez]

If a power conference wants a basketball only school from big east, it starts and ends with UConn.

I think that’s naive. Villanova is a really strong brand in the Philadelphia market. If Yormark is going to create a hybrid conference why wouldn’t he take them? Why wouldn’t he take St. John’s to get access to msg and the NYC market?

He just shifted the center of gravity of the big 12 west, but he could counter balance that for Olympics by creating a east coast nucleus.

Look, I’ve told a lot it people on Twitter to go ch*t in their hat this morning. I hate the idea of a basketball only invite, it’s insulting.

But in a scenario where 3 traditional big east teams are all getting plucked to knock the big East off its axis, it changes things.

 

[CL82]

Damn.
If he is referring to UConn(big if) it would be reasonable to conclude that a partial invite was the play all along. Or they are not done and we go in as an odd number which is less likely.
So much has just transpired in such a short period of time and a basketball coach( not AD not president) is privy to a possible next step a day after adding 3 more teams. This suggests there is a bigger plan and more to be executed.

There's nothing in there that even hints at a partial invite.

 

[metsfan2323]

If a power conference wants a basketball only school from the big east, it starts and ends with UConn.

Unless we turn it down and they invite other Big East Schools. I hate to even think about. it. Hopefully this worst-case scenario is just in our paranoid imagination.

Hopefully Tang is referring to the possibility of going to 18 full members and maybe we are still in play as a full member. B12 might also be going after Stanford and Cal. Flugar is just a hack.

 

[CL82]

I’ll say this — Yormark just eliminated a major competitor for football and basketball dollars from the marketplace

Did he though? I would say instead that the major media companies chose to consolidate the number of conferences that they have to deal with, again. Yormark definitely took advantage of the circumstances though.

 

[Blades]

Yormark doesn’t have to take many schools to cut the heart out of the Big East.

I’m definitely spiraling into conspiracy theory time right now but what if Cooley was a canary in the coal mine?

Could be.....I've been trying to explain this to BE or die Uconn crowd on twitter. What would it take for Fox with the Big 12's help (and even ESPN if they get some content ) to stop bidding on the Big East in the next media deal ? If Yormark gets the go ahead to offer 3 BE schools and Gonzaga say $10 Mil each for hoops ? It equals a kill shot. Are Nova, G-town and the Johnies gonna say no and end up in a PAC-12 situation or old Big East where the rest are scrambling around hoping for chump change, SMH!....we've this movie way to many times...and Yormark gets NYC and MSG by default, hmmm isn't that what he said he wants !

 

[UConnJim]

Hoops only to the XII sounds like water torture, but may be UConn's only lifeline. I am of the belief that the next network contract for the Big East will be drastically lower or the networks will just not negotiate as they have enough content due to the demise of the PAC-12.
If UConn goes hoops only to the XII, I agree with the previous statements that the Contract mast be at least for $ 15M per year & a provision to play 6 games per year to allow for more ease in scheduling in football.
My concern is where will the Athletic Department plant Husky Olympic Sports? This will get messy.

Cap, I have posted on Big East basketball and the media contract multiple times on this forum, but I will elaborate some more and explain why FOX needs/wants Big East basketball.

Before I explain who holds various media rights, you need to recognize that the conference networks, BTN, ACCN, and SECN have drastically reduced basketball content as you need to broadcast something of value to maintain carriage.

In the future, FOX owns the media rights for some Big 10 basketball and some Big 12 basketball. Here are what seem to be the commitments (they will probably change slightly with the movement of the Pac 12 teams):

Big 10 basketball games: 126 on BTN, 47 on Peacock, 45 on FOX/FS1, some games on CBS, and the Big 10 Tournament on CBS. (The number of games on FOX are about the same as in the old contract.

Big 12 basketball games: ESPN remains the primary rights holder, but some games will be on FOX/FS1. The number on FOX/FS1 has not been defined as of yet. Championship on ESPN.

ACC and SEC basketball: No games on FOX. Championships on ESPN.

Mountain West basketball games: 45 on CBSSN, 32 on FS1, 2 on CBS, and 1 on FOX. (Runs through 2025/2026, but not really material to the Big East as these are late night games.). Championship on CBS.

Let's now look at the Big East and Pac 12.

Big East basketball games: 120 games on FOX/FS1, 3 on CBS, 19 on CBSSN. The entire Big East basketball tournament is on FS1/FOX.

Pac 12 basketball games: 19 games on FS1, 3 games on FOX. (No contract going forward.). Championship on ESPN.

Overall FOX basketball inventory today is ~223 games with one conference tournament (Big East). Contracted after 2025/2026 ~80 to 90 games per year with no conference tournaments.

One last point. Yormack recognized the flaw in the Big 12's media inventory: he needed more Eastern time zone content for both football and primarily for basketball. (Remember 47% of the country lives in the Eastern time zone.). FS1 has 6:30 PM time slots on weekdays for basketball, but the Big 12 has only 3 Eastern time zone schools. So, the Big 12 does not have enough content for 6:30 PM time slots as you can not start weekday games at 5:30 PM Central time or 4:30 PM Mountain time.

It looks to me that FOX needs the Big East to fill the college basketball content hole.

 

[mike012]

Unfortunately if he offers 10 million and 4-5 football games along with a bowl spot. You take it.

 

[UConnJim]

According to the Jason Scheer comment last night, the potential invite to Gonzaga & UConn is for just basketball, NOT basketball/olympic sports. Acceptance of those terms is a huge headache for the athletic department.

That is not allowed. You can not join a conference for only one sport unless your current conference doesn't offer that sport.

 

[Storrs South]

Unfortunately if he offers 10 million and 4-5 football games along with a bowl spot. You take it.

You absolutely do not take it

 

[yuckformak]

You absolutely do not take it

Agreed. But I would take the same deal with the ACC.

 

[Waquoit]

Robert Craft did the same thing to the entire state of Connecticut with his talk of moving the Pats to Hartford. It was leverage to get Massachusetts to pony-up more money for Gillette Stadium.

It worked so well he ended getting nothing he hadn't been offered before. Massachusetts didn't pony up 1 penny for Gillette.

 

[mike012]

You absolutely do not take it

It’s all about football and showing we belong again. If we show we belong as a football P4. We will have 2 conferences trying to get us maybe even the BIG. But football has to be able to show it belongs. Winning against BiG12 teams will get that. We could go 0-32 in basketball but 10-3 in football 3 years straight and be in a P4 the 4th year. Basketball matters that much.