UConn/Big 12 Meeting Next Week

[JMick]

The teams you mentioned from ACC were fun because of how good they were at the time and the coaches they had. No more Higgins, no Boeheim, no Cronin. None of the student body is going to know or care about the former Big East. I agree with super John about Louisville. They will be back again.

There's no Wright at villanova. Pitino won't be at St Johns long. Seton Hall is Seton Hall. Providence will always be a stepping stone program. You can crap on the ACC teams all you want but they have brighter futures than most in the Big East

 

[Fore!]

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.

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.

Huge risk not getting football in right away, but it's probably the only way to convince the other schools to let us in. This sounds like it's going to happen

Note so sure; the article I read indicated push back from a number of schools and that any invitation is far from a done deal.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

There's no Wright at villanova. Pitino won't be at St Johns long. Seton Hall is Seton Hall. Providence will always be a stepping stone program. You can crap on the ACC teams all you want but they have brighter futures than most in the Big East

I doubt that. The former BE schools that all left proved going to a lucrative conference did nothing for their basketball programs

 

[Bongo Fury]

The B12 commissioner is trying to zag when the other power conferences are zigging. He's expecting basketball to have growth and earn a closer share of revenue dollars to football over the years. So he's loading up on undervalued basketball-focused properties (Arizona, Houston, BYU, etc.) and worthwhile "leftovers".

His goal is P3. The top schools in all other conferences have joined the B1G or SEC, and FSU/Clemson have made it clear they're looking to bolt the ACC as soon as they find a way around the grant of rights or bully their way out. Yormark is seeing how tenuous the ACC's position is, and how many strong basketball-focused brands/schools the ACC has that won't be the top choice of B1G/SEC. The B12 was almost dead, and now he's trying to make the B12 a better landing spot for some of the basketball-focused ACC schools when the time comes instead of ACC teams staying and trying to poach FROM the B12. So he's getting UConn in right away to further enhance the B12's value in the run up to their next media negotiation and next round of realignment (easier to convince east coast teams from ACC that B12 will work for them if they have UConn as a test case and "friend" as it were... and keep us from the ACC as a decent fill-in when others leave).

From UConn's perspective, joining right away hopefully gets us more short term money while eventually getting us enough money when football joins and we get a full share to compete when the House settlement and revenue sharing of up to $25 million annually to players kicks in. B12 presidents don't want to give us football money that comes out of their share and ESPN won't give us full pro rata share because our football is garbage. So have to wait for a full re-negotiation in 2031, and B12 presidents are pretty skeptical about our football so they'll add some stipulations to protect themselves from us joining if we don't improve football so we're not a net drain on that future football negotiation. UConn would prefer football in right away, but it doesn't seem to be an option.

I don’t care why he likes UConn and others don’t but glad he likes UConn.

 

[UCLJ0211]

Wish they could finalize this before the renovations to the XL Center start. Maybe we would actually get a whole new arena.

 

[Devland]

Stay in the Big East and win basketball championships while everyone says we “have to” move.

We "stayed in the Big East" once before. All the catholic schools left and formed their own league. The league we stayed in sold the Big East name to the catholic schools. We never moved until we joined this new league.

 

[Al Czervik]

 

[StllH8L8ner]

I hate it but it needs to be done.

 

[BlueMAB]

I love the BIG EAST basketball conference, the style of play, the regional opponents (for the most part), great rivalries. Very happy here.

We’re all happy here. But we’re finding it difficult making up the $30m+ budget shortfall required to keep things afloat.

 

[bendm]

Honestly? Id rather play Nova, St Johns, Providence, and Seton Hall.

This only makes sense if you're grading those big east teams on a curve.

The question isn’t whether we’d rather play Cuse, Pitt, Lville, VT etc it’s whether we’d rather play Kansas, Houston, Baylor, Arizona etc and be in the best bball conference in the country

 

[MJ1]

There's no Wright at villanova. Pitino won't be at St Johns long. Seton Hall is Seton Hall. Providence will always be a stepping stone program. You can crap on the ACC teams all you want but they have brighter futures than most in the Big East

You never know, Pitino may be at St. John’s longer than Coach Hurley (possibly NBA) is at UConn.

 

[bendm]

You never know, Pitino may be at St. John’s longer than Coach Hurley (possibly NBA) is at UConn.

is this supposed to be an argument for staying or what? I don’t see your point cause even if Pitino stays longer than Hurley he’s still 71

 

[AntG168]

Rumor on twitter is it’s a package with Gonzaga

 

[djct1999]

This is a no brainer. UConn wants to be a major player long term. Currently, we are on the outside looking in. Our basketball brand is so hot that a P3 conference wants to bite. I don’t care when football joins as a full member. If the Big12 invites us, we accept under any terms. It’s a date to the dance. You don’t say no.

 

[husky429]

You never know, Pitino may be at St. John’s longer than Coach Hurley (possibly NBA) is at UConn.

Pitino is a walking corpse. No way

 

[upstater]

The biggest part is budget neutral and not reducing other schools TV money payouts. That's a much easier sell for Yormark than to try to get them to vote us in while taking a haircut, which would never happen.

It's going to happen in 2031 though.

 

[upstater]

I think if the offer is full membership including football, UConn basically has to take it. If they need to provide themselves worthy by 2031 with investments and an upgraded program, I'd be very leery. Seven years in limbo is an eternity, and there may be better options available by then.

This will be an ironclad deal involving investments, not wins and losses. They will have to commit to paying the coaching staff like other B12 schools.

The only other investment I could imagine is forcing UConn to build an on campus stadium?

 

[WhereistheDove?]

After watching Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Miami all thrive with their big Ol' P5 budgets, excited to break all of our rivalries and the soul of our athletic department and regional dominance/relevance !!

This is such an overstated point. What meaningful historical rivals are currently in the big east and move the needle at all? Villanova and maybe an argument for Providence, Marquette, and St. John’s? It has the same name but this is not the Big East of old and our rivalries are far more limited than many fans make them out to be.

 

[HooperScooper]

Pitino is a walking corpse. No way

He's a vampire. Don't they live for hundreds of years?

 

[upstater]

I am a fool for saying this, but I have to believe that the votes to admit UConn were vetted beforehand and that UConn was not going through the campus visit process only to be told NO once again. There is no way the UConn president would subject the school's honor and reputation to that yet again. If it's true UConn presented, then it's practically a done deal.

 

[superjohn]

This is such an overstated point. What meaningful historical rivals are currently in the big east and move the needle at all? Villanova and maybe an argument for Providence, Marquette, and St. John’s? It has the same name but this is not the Big East of old and our rivalries are far more limited than many fans make them out to be.

It hasn't been the Big East of old since 2005.

 

[gsmooth]

I am a fool for saying this, but I have to believe that the votes to admit UConn were vetted beforehand and that UConn was not going through the campus visit process only to be told NO once again. There is no way the UConn president would subject the school's honor and reputation to that yet again. If it's true UConn presented, then it's practically a done deal.

mmm.. I hope you are correct, but the tone of this article in ESPN written by Pete Thamel suggests the opposite:

Sources: UConn in early talks for joining Big 12

The Big 12 and UConn are in discussions for the Huskies potentially joining the league, sources told ESPN, though a high-ranking conference official cautioned there is "a far distance between conversations and anything that would happen."

www.espn.com

The the link between the Big 12 and UConn has more specifics as far as the preliminary terms as opposed to last year's rumors which had no specifics at all. But this could be more of the same mental masturbation for UConn and its fans.

I am in the camp of I will believe it when I see and hear Yormark officially announce it. If UConn Football was merely mediocre the last decade averaging between 5-7 a season with 85% of The Rent filled out with loud fans, UConn would be in a Power conference by now.

 

[Austin316]

@kobe

 

[RuffRuff]

This is such an overstated point. What meaningful historical rivals are currently in the big east and move the needle at all? Villanova and maybe an argument for Providence, Marquette, and St. John’s? It has the same name but this is not the Big East of old and our rivalries are far more limited than many fans make them out to be.

Agree with this. Rivalries are only as good as the quality of play, which is based on the quality of coaches and players. When the new economics evolve further the BE will be so far behind the curve they won’t be able to afford the best coaches or players. If nothing changes with the portal process, you’ll likely see players transferring out of the BE year after year for NIL. It’s an inevitable descension.

The BE got 3 teams in last year. Jay Wright is gone. Check the recruiting lists and you’ll see very few BE teams contending for top players. There is very little trending in the right direction.

We lose the BET tourney and that stings. We lose proximity. This would be upgrade the quality of hoops exponentially.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

The question isn’t whether we’d rather play Cuse, Pitt, Lville, VT etc it’s whether we’d rather play Kansas, Houston, Baylor, Arizona etc and be in the best bball conference in the country

Does it really matter if we are winning national titles and able to schedule those teams now?