UConn/Big 12 Meeting Next Week

[aburks41]

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

 

[auror]

TheAthletic version of the story:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5719604/2024/08/23/big-12-expansion-uconn-pursuit/

The most interesting details for me:

The Big 12 is a year away from beginning a new six-year deal with ESPN and Fox that will pay its members an average of $31.7 million per school. The deal was agreed to before the former Pac-12 schools’ additions, but ESPN was required to pay a pro-rata share to the four Power 5 members. UConn, however, would not be guaranteed the same deal.

ESPN has previously considered adding more money to the Big 12’s television deal, according to broadcasting sources briefed on the talks. ESPN is located in Bristol, Conn., just 40 miles from Storrs. Fox, the Big 12’s other broadcast rights partner, may be less inclined to add money as it already has UConn basketball as part of its Big East package.

Current members have been told UConn’s addition would be “budget-neutral” and would not reduce conference revenue payouts to existing members, according to multiple Big 12 administrators.

Basically it sounds like this only happens if ESPN wants to poach us from Fox and will pay up, because the rest of the B12 presidents don't want their football money going to us.

 

[dennismenace]

This is very vague and difficult to comprehend what this means:

Though nothing is imminent, the in-person presentation is a sign of the serious nature of the discussions.

 

[navery12]

Despite my incoming 35 posts and constant following of this thread, wake me up when this is finalized. I've been duped too many times before

 

[aburks41]

TheAthletic version of the story:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5719604/2024/08/23/big-12-expansion-uconn-pursuit/

The most interesting details for me:

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.

 

[BigFanCT]

Lmao it may not even be a league in 2031. What are we doing here

 

[JohnFSilver]

TheAthletic version of the story:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5719604/2024/08/23/big-12-expansion-uconn-pursuit/

The most interesting details for me:

Basically it sounds like this only happens if ESPN wants to poach us from Fox and will pay up, because the rest of the B12 presidents don't want their football money going to us.

It bothers espn’s leadership and definitely their editorial teams that UConn men’s and women’s basketball isn’t part of their portfolio. Especially with how much women’s hoops has risen.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Part of me is, why not move to the ACC, that makes more sense! but honestly, the ACC as a basketball school has been a shell of itself the last five seasons.

Here are the conference ranks per KenPom over that time span:

2020: Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, ACC
2021: Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC, ACC, Big East
2022: Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, ACC
2023: Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, SEC, Pac 12, MWC, ACC
2024: Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC

That being said, the Big 12 is an incredible conference to join for basketball reasons. Obviously, it'll stink not being able to easily travel for away games (I've only been to St. John's and Seton Hall games), but it's an incredible conference and will greatly help the school financially.

 

[HooperScooper]

Lmao it may not even be a league in 2031. What are we doing here

That was my thought also. With how quickly conference realignment is moving who the heck knows what the Big 12, and the conference landscape in general, looks like in 2031.

 

[HooperScooper]

Part of me is, why not move to the ACC, that makes more sense! but honestly, the ACC as a basketball school has been a shell of itself the last five seasons.

Here are the conference ranks per KenPom over that time span:

2020: Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, ACC
2021: Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC, ACC, Big East
2022: Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, ACC
2023: Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, SEC, Pac 12, MWC, ACC
2024: Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC

That being said, the Big 12 is an incredible conference to join for basketball reasons. Obviously, it'll stink not being able to easily travel for away games (I've only been to St. John's and Seton Hall games), but it's an incredible conference and will greatly help the school financially.

And with the additions of Stanford, Cal and SMU it's probably going to get worse for the ACC.

 

[kobe]

 

[That Guy]

Lmao it may not even be a league in 2031. What are we doing here

I actually think the Big 12 is a very stable conference right now because there aren't any schools that the B1G or SEC would consider poaching from there + the ACC looks like it's going to be the one that implodes. The most likely scenario is that the ACC falls apart, the Big 12 picks up the best pieces from there and that's definitely a conference we would want to be a part of.

 

[HooperScooper]

@kobe right now knowing he may have at least 1 more loss on the resume every season

 

[WhereistheDove?]

I actually think the Big 12 is a very stable conference right now because there aren't any schools that the B1G or SEC would consider poaching from there + the ACC looks like it's going to be the one that implodes. The most likely scenario is that the ACC falls apart, the Big 12 picks up the best pieces from there and that's definitely a conference we would want to be a part of.

This. Big 12 is winning out as the best of the rest conference. Will end up taking whatever decent scraps the SEC/B1G don’t want once the ACC implodes. Even with the 2031 deal, if those milestones are achievable, it’s the best spot.

 

[businesslawyer]

Time for Gov Malloy to get to work here.

The big barrier to full immediate B12 membership is the other schools don't want their revenue share diluted since the ESPN TV contract does not trigger an automatic pro-rata share increase like it did for the previous expansion. The B12 pro-rata revenue is $31.7MM per year. That is chump change for ESPN relative to what UConn would bring to the network. So Malloy needs to work with ESPN and find some way to give them a tax incentive to offset the $31.7MM pro-rata yearly cost for adding UConn (somewhere around $15MM per year should be more than enough). This would enable UConn to gain immediate B12 membership.

As stated in the articles, I don't think we can take the deal joining without a hard commitment for football. I don't like the whole "Contingent upon the school meeting certain thresholds" stance. That is just setting us up for sabotage and getting completely screwed in the next realignment and TV deals. We need full membership when we shift our other valuable entities (basketball) to a conference. Otherwise, this is us just getting completely played. We cannot leave the Big East without a complete commitment for all sports form a Top 4 Conference. End of Story.

Get to work Malloy!

If the "contingencies" are things we can control, because it only requires expenditures of money to achieve specific targets, fine. If it requires achieving success on the field, that's something else entirely.

By the way -- it's hard to take your analysis seriously if you want the political branches of our government to act and yet you can't be bothered to look up who the governor is.

 

[bmayuc]

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 !!

 

[Deleted at users request]

Part of me is, why not move to the ACC, that makes more sense! but honestly, the ACC as a basketball school has been a shell of itself the last five seasons.

Here are the conference ranks per KenPom over that time span:

2020: Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, ACC
2021: Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC, ACC, Big East
2022: Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, ACC
2023: Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, SEC, Pac 12, MWC, ACC
2024: Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC

That being said, the Big 12 is an incredible conference to join for basketball reasons. Obviously, it'll stink not being able to easily travel for away games (I've only been to St. John's and Seton Hall games), but it's an incredible conference and will greatly help the school financially.

Crazy ACC stat. If it stays together I still do like the idea of getting our old rivalries back with the likes of Cuse, Pitt, Louisville etc for nostalgia purposes lol.

Also playing Duke and UNC every year sounds like so much fun.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Lmao it may not even be a league in 2031. What are we doing here

If the B12 is poached again, you’d rather be with the best of what’s remaining than left on the outside. The B12 would be in a position to merge with the best remaining ACC schools as well.

 

[JSB60]

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

 

[Platt81]

This is very vague and difficult to comprehend what this means:

Though nothing is imminent, the in-person presentation is a sign of the serious nature of the discussions.

What’s difficult to comprehend or vague? UConn admins met with league officials last week, and although nothing is imminent, having an in person meeting and presentation is a sign of it being serious. UConn flew to Dallas to meet with Big XII brass, that’s a big deal, but it also doesn’t mean it’s a done deal.

 

[bendm]

TheAthletic version of the story:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5719604/2024/08/23/big-12-expansion-uconn-pursuit/

The most interesting details for me:

Basically it sounds like this only happens if ESPN wants to poach us from Fox and will pay up, because the rest of the B12 presidents don't want their football money going to us.

and it sounds like ESPN would pay up, or at least the Admins think ESPN would pay up based on this quote- "Current members have been told UConn’s addition would be “budget-neutral” and would not reduce conference revenue payouts to existing members, according to multiple Big 12 administrators."

 

[Bboy Lace]

Sooooooo....
Zanetto wasn't just talking crazy?
Hmmmm......

 

[husky429]

The football runway thing is expected but... odd.

I'll believe it when I see it. But I'd be happy about it.

Really, whatever puts us in the the best position to humiliate the best competition in CBB is good with me. I hate that football money is such an important piece of the puzzle, but I get it.

I'm curious if academics would come into play at all on UConn's side. We'd be the highest ranked university by quite a bit in the conference.

 

[superjohn]

If Governor Malloy doesn't make this happen he better be voted out.

 

[bendm]

If the B12 is poached again, you’d rather be with the best of what’s remaining than left on the outside. The B12 would be in a position to merge with the best remaining ACC schools as well.

the football fans on this board have been rooting for the worst college football program over the past decade yet nothing is ever good enough for them. this is a no brainer.

1) there are no teams left in the BIG12 to be poached by the SEC or BIG.
2) if they are referring to the dreaded "breakaway football division" then we at least need to be one of the leftover BIG12 schools that merge with the leftover ACC schools.

 

[Ucxc24]

The fact they got past the AD meeting and now are meeting with presidents are a good sign. Not getting my hopes up

 

[Rasputin]

Time for Gov Malloy to get to work here.

The big barrier to full immediate B12 membership is the other schools don't want their revenue share diluted since the ESPN TV contract does not trigger an automatic pro-rata share increase like it did for the previous expansion. The B12 pro-rata revenue is $31.7MM per year. That is chump change for ESPN relative to what UConn would bring to the network. So Malloy needs to work with ESPN and find some way to give them a tax incentive to offset the $31.7MM pro-rata yearly cost for adding UConn (somewhere around $15MM per year should be more than enough). This would enable UConn to gain immediate B12 membership.

As stated in the articles, I don't think we can take the deal joining without a hard commitment for football. I don't like the whole "Contingent upon the school meeting certain thresholds" stance. That is just setting us up for sabotage and getting completely screwed in the next realignment and TV deals. We need full membership when we shift our other valuable entities (basketball) to a conference. Otherwise, this is us just getting completely played. We cannot leave the Big East without a complete commitment for all sports form a Top 4 Conference. End of Story.

Get to work Malloy!

 

[ec33]

Hoping the 2031 date is about full TV payout, not actually joining the league for football.

Yes UConn football isn't great, but achieving parity with the bottom half of the league isn't going to be a titanic effort. UConn won't be Vanderbilt.

 

[noeynox]

Part of me is, why not move to the ACC, that makes more sense! but honestly, the ACC as a basketball school has been a shell of itself the last five seasons.

Here are the conference ranks per KenPom over that time span:

2020: Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, ACC
2021: Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC, ACC, Big East
2022: Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, ACC
2023: Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, SEC, Pac 12, MWC, ACC
2024: Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC

That being said, the Big 12 is an incredible conference to join for basketball reasons. Obviously, it'll stink not being able to easily travel for away games (I've only been to St. John's and Seton Hall games), but it's an incredible conference and will greatly help the school financially.

We have a choice?

 

[50cPitchers]

Whatever just a stopgap anyway until the NCAA eventually dissolves and we beg for mercy at the feet of our new SEC and B1G overlords