UConn Headed To Big 12?? That's The Unofficial Report | The Boneyard

UConn Headed To Big 12?? That's The Unofficial Report

Let's see...the Big12 has an exclusive contract with ESPN (mostly ESPN+) to broadcast a ton of sporting events. Most of them are the school's network. For example this past season, almost every Oklahoma (I do realize that they are now in the SEC, but they weren't before July 1st) softball game was broadcasted, again most via ESPN+. But they were produced by the school. So...maybe SNY can get the rights to broadcast every WBB game not carried by the major networks and become the school's production team.
 
Big 12 now has 16 schools, closest to UCONN is probably Cincinnatti. Most of 2024-2025 Schedule already set. Travel would be a challenge, but might be nice to play new schools since Big East is no longer competitive.
 
EricLA said:
Torn? in what way? It would be a dream come true for the University. And also start laying the groundwork for a big football stadium expansion, and moving the program forward and upwards...
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I'm a romantic who got hooked on the Old Big East a long time ago. That's the torn part. Big 10, Big 12, SEC insufferably stuck on themselves. But business is business. Follow the $$$. And the move might keep a certain coach at UConn until the end of his career or he foolishly goes pro.
 
Centerstream said:
Let's see...the Big12 has an exclusive contract with ESPN (mostly ESPN+) to broadcast a ton of sporting events. Most of them are the school's network. For example this past season, almost every Oklahoma (I do realize that they are now in the SEC, but they weren't before July 1st) softball game was broadcasted, again most via ESPN+. But they were produced by the school. So...maybe SNY can get the rights to broadcast every WBB game not carried by the major networks and become the school's production team.
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I don't think that will happen. Part of what precipitated our departure from the ACC was the fact that ESPN indicated it would no longer subcontract the games out to SNY. The good news is that under our existing big east deal none of the UConn women's basketball games are streaming only. That may be an indication that woman's basketball, and particularly Connecticut women's basketball, is getting a long overdue appreciation of its value.

If we get an offer from a power conference, and I detest that designation, we take it. That said, I enjoy Connecticut being a member of the big east with more road games that are drivable. I very much like the men's basketball tournament in MSG. That is a phenomenally, good environment, particularly if you are a Connecticut fan. But if we're given a choice between getting 6 1/2 million dollars as a media distribution or $35-$40 million, the differential is too large for us to decline the offer. Think about it, upon our getting full distribution rights our athletic department would go from being in the whole roughly $35-$40 million to being breakeven or at least close to it.
 
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This would only be an improvement for UConn as far as I'm concerned. I remember the OBE fondly and I'm glad we got to kinda re-live it for a while, but the B12 has what we need to keep thriving in this new era of college sports.

Fingers crossed.
 
I've followed Uconn football for several years, since they were members of the old Yankee Conference and my opinion has not changed, but, rather, been re-enforced. Football is not, has never been and will never be a priority. The sport was too expensive to begin with and with NIL and the shrinking of conferences it would be even more difficult to attempt to match even second rate teams. To offer your team as a sacrifice goat for top ranked teams for a "payday" is cruel to the players and just enhances the losing record. Basketball is the King and the university can profit greatly if it continues to periodize the programs. Forget the Big 12, stay with the Big East. This is where we belong.
 
Zarathustra said:
I think that it must be a "SLOW" day for sport coverage..... Until it happens,... to me
this is just another opportunity to click on some "CLICK BAIT".
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I hear you. I read your post and that was almost exactly my thought when I saw the post. Followed closely by this:

 
EricLA said:
Torn? in what way? It would be a dream come true for the University [football team]. And also start laying the groundwork for a big football stadium expansion, and moving the [football] program forward and upwards [just like our time in the AAC]...
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Note [edits] to your quote above.

The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas. It consists of 16 full-member universities in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

This would be a disaster for every other UConn sports program forced to play in the Big 12. UConn just came out of the desert (AAC) ... why go back?
 
CajunHusky said:
This would be a disaster for every other UConn sports program forced to play in the Big 12. UConn just came out of the desert (AAC) ... why go back?
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It's a P5 conference, which means more money and better levering for future contracts. Attracts talent in areas like football (which currently runs the ship in the college sports landscape). Better opponents overall.

But more $$$ is the biggest thing.

The Big East was a step up from the AAC. And the B12 is a step up from the BE.
 
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maple said:
It's a P5 conference, which means more money and better levering for future contracts. Attracts talent in areas like football (which currently runs the ship in the college sports landscape). Better opponents overall.

But more $$$ is the biggest thing.

The Big East was a step up from the AAC. And the B12 is a step up from the BE.
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Until the Big12 falls apart from the final round of conference realignment in 5 years and UConn is left with no back up plan as the Big East ship will have sailed.

The plan has always been for the Big 10 and SEC to create two super conferences and then leave the NCAA together.
 
GirlBoo1020 said:
Until the Big12 falls apart from the final round of conference realignment in 5 years and UConn is left with no back up plan as the Big East ship will have sailed.

The plan has always been for the Big 10 and SEC to create two super conferences and then leave the NCAA together.
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If UConn joins the Big 12 and if conference realignment happens, UConn will end up joining either the Big 10 or SEC.
 
GirlBoo1020 said:
Until the Big12 falls apart from the final round of conference realignment in 5 years and UConn is left with no back up plan as the Big East ship will have sailed.
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If/when the B12 closes up shop, if we are in the B12 we will be in a much better position to get into whatever good conferences are left than if we stay in the BE. The current Big East is not the ceiling for us. It is the ground level. The AAC was the basement.
 
MSGRET said:
If UConn joins the Big 12 and if conference realignment happens, UConn will end up joining either the Big 10 or SEC.
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Unfortunately that is not what is going to happen, unless of course UConn football becomes a middle of the pack team in football in the Big 12 in the next few years. I don't follow football so i have no idea if thats possible. Otherwise, they'll be part of the left behind schools scrabbling for a solutions and no basketball conference to fall back into either. A move to the Big 12 could very well spell the end of the both mens and womens basketball programs in the next decade imo.
 
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GirlBoo1020 said:
Until the Big12 falls apart from the final round of conference realignment in 5 years and UConn is left with no back up plan as the Big East ship will have sailed.

The plan has always been for the Big 10 and SEC to create two super conferences and then leave the NCAA together.
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I don't think that's a likely outcome, but let's assume, for a moment, that it is correct.

For the purposes of argument, let's also assume a $40 million per school distribution payout from the big 12. That would be $200 million earned in five years.

And you would want the university to walk away from that for what reason exactly?
 
GirlBoo1020 said:
Unfortunately that is not what is going to happen, unless of course UConn football becomes a middle of the pack team in football in the Big 12 in the next few years. I don't follow football so i have no idea if thats possible. Otherwise, they'll be part of the left behind schools scrabbling for a solutions and no basketball conference to fall back into either. A move to the Big 12 could very well spell the end of the both mens and womens basketball programs in the next decade imo.
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Regarding football, first of all it would take some big donors stepping up for NIL, but money talks and enough of it can get you at least SOME modicum of success. Could we become a middle of the pack team in 5 years if UConn joined the B12 today? Yes. Because football getting into a P5 conference would be HUGE for the program. Players want to play in big conferences, they want to be on TV, they want to get paid. All of those things will breed success. You're not going to be the new Alabama but you will be decent.

However, UConn basketball's future depends SOLELY on their successes alone. It is our flagship program. If the university continues to pay the coaches well and continues to make good hires (when necessary), then it doesn't matter what conference we're in. Honestly, UConn WBB and MBB were in the awful AAC and they still brought home titles.
 
maple said:
If/when the B12 closes up shop, if we are in the B12 we will be in a much better position to get into whatever good conferences are left than if we stay in the BE. The current Big East is not the ceiling for us. It is the ground level. The AAC was the basement.
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It depends on what schools are left over and how much damage is done to the basketball programs by the time it happens. I think UConn likely has better odds to land in a good situation in the Big East than the Big 12 if the Big 10/SEC do in fact pull away.
 
CL82 said:
I don't think that's a likely outcome, but let's assume, for a moment, that it is correct.

For the purposes of argument, let's also assume a $40 million per school distribution payout from the big 12. That would be $200 million earned in five years.

And you would want the university to walk away from that for what reason exactly?
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Because I do not work at UConn and them having 200 million dollars and no competitive athletic programs doesn't do anything for me. Great Uconn has 200 million dollars but the basketball programs are essentially killed. Yay?
 
GirlBoo1020 said:
Because I do not work at UConn and them having 200 million dollars and no competitive athletic programs doesn't do anything for me. Great Uconn has 200 million dollars but the basketball programs are essentially killed. Yay?
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There's a whole lot of presumptions in that statement.

Why would you believe that the basketball programs would be "killed" in the big 12? Right now the men's basketball program is widely viewed as the best program in college basketball. How moving to the big 12 change that?

Similarly, the women's basketball program is widely considered to be the best women's basketball program of all time. Move to the big east was never a good one for women's basketball because the big east conference, overall, hurts are ranking due to we competition. Part of the reason why our preseason is so difficult is to offset that.

The big 12 is widely perceived to be the strongest men's basketball conference. Playing in it would create potential for great matchups including, hopefully, an annual home and away game with Kansas. Games with perennial top 20 program Houston and reuniting an old sort of rivalry with Cincinnati would also be good for the men's program.

Similarly the big 12 would set up games for Connecticut versus Iowa, Baylor and reunite us with old conference mate UCF.

I understand that you don't care that in your hypothetical we are by the big 12 conference somehow fails infive years of big 12 membership (Which I believe is unlikely to the point of ridiculousness) would be worth $200 million to Connecticut. Reasonable people, however, I think would agree that $200 million to the university, into the state of Connecticut is enormously valuable.

Let's say that your hypothetical about the demise. The big 12 is correct, but you're off by five years. Then that 200 million becomes 400 million. The difference between what we make in the big east and what we would make in a power conference is enormous. More importantly, if the big 12 is somehow destroyed by the consolidation of power between the big 10 the SEC, certainly the big east would be destroyed before hand. In essence, affiliation with the power conference means that the universities athletic programs continue to remain viable. Those of us who have been fans for decades and want to be fans for many decades more realize that making 4 1/2 million dollars currently isn't sustainable. Think about this, our entire big east media distribution doesn't even pay for Dan Hurley salary.
 
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CL82 said:
There's a whole lot of presumptions in that statement.
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You wrote it as I was thinking it. ‍

Disclaimer- I am no longer a Ct taxpayer. I have never set foot in Storrs. My loyalty is to the WBB team and its coaches and support staff.

A move to a so-called power conference makes sense, especially now that the bogus “student/athlete” myth is debunked. College sport, at least for football, basketball, and maybe baseball, is an entertainment business. My beloved masochistic pastime, cross country running, is still a sport.

If and when the SEC and running dogs leave the now toothless NCAA, would CT be better off in a third tier conference, or one with more prestige, more money, and better media contracts?
 
CL82 said:
There's a whole lot of presumptions in that statement.

Why would you believe that the basketball programs would be "killed" in the big 12? Right now the men's basketball program is widely viewed as the best program in college basketball. How moving to the big 12 change that?

Similarly, the women's basketball program is widely considered to be the best women's basketball program of all time. Move to the big east was never a good one for women's basketball because the big east conference, overall, hurts are ranking due to we competition. Part of the reason why our preseason is so difficult is to offset that.

The big 12 is widely perceived to be the strongest men's basketball conference. Playing in it would create potential for great matchups including, hopefully, an annual home and away game with Kansas. Games with perennial top 20 program Houston and reuniting an old sort of rivalry with Cincinnati would also be good for the men's program.

Similarly the big 12 would set up games for Connecticut versus Iowa, Baylor and reunite us with old conference mate UCF.

I understand that you don't care that in your hypothetical we are by the big 12 conference somehow fails infive years of big 12 membership (Which I believe is unlikely to the point of ridiculousness) would be worth $200 million to Connecticut. Reasonable people, however, I think would agree that $200 million to the university, into the state of Connecticut is enormously valuable.

Let's say that your hypothetical about the demise. The big 12 is correct, but you're off by five years. Then that 200 million becomes 400 million. The difference between what we make in the big east and what we would make in a power conference is enormous. More importantly, if the big 12 is somehow destroyed by the consolidation of power between the big 10 the SEC, certainly the big east would be destroyed before hand. In essence, affiliation with the power conference means that the universities athletic programs continue to remain viable. Those of us who have been fans for decades and want to be fans for many decades more realize that making 4 1/2 million dollars currently isn't sustainable. Think about this, our entire big east media distribution doesn't even pay for Dan Hurley salary.
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You seem to misunderstand me. I am not saying the Big 12 will kill the basketball programs but being in the Big 12 when the Big 10 and SEC pull away from the NCAA will. No NCAA, no NCAA tournament will kill college basketball almost completely but I don't see UConn being part of the group of basketball schools those schools DO include, IF they include anyone else, when they create whatever it is they will have to create to replace the NCAA tournament, unless they are affiliated with a strong basketball conference which ,whatever leftovers from the Big 12 will be left will not make.

Again 200 million, 400 million 1 billion dollars going to the university or the state of connecticut or the united states of america or the king of england doesn't make an iota of difference to me. THe athletic department will essentially be killed off by this move in under a decade.

Now you may think the Big 10 and SEC pulling away in all sports in unlikely. I'll entertain a non dooms day option for a moment because I think them pulling away in just football is potentially more likely. In which case, I think conferences would realign to make more sense regionally for non-football sports, in which case UConn could easily be left in the dust having alienated any conference that would make sense for UConn.

I just don't see any way going to the big 12 is anything but a death sentence for UConn athletics long term, even if maybe they do get to update a dorm or two because of the pay days.
 
GirlBoo1020 said:
It depends on what schools are left over and how much damage is done to the basketball programs by the time it happens. I think UConn likely has better odds to land in a good situation in the Big East than the Big 12 if the Big 10/SEC do in fact pull away.
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If that was true then we never would have ended up in the AAC in the first place. We’ve been struggling all these years to get a seat at the table because we got stuck in the old BE while everyone else was getting into a P5.

Getting into the B12 would do zero damage to the UConn basketball brand. It would only enhance it.

Edited to add: If the P5s ever pull away from the NCAA (and that’s a big if), it would only be for football.

Edit 2: Even in this hypothetical solution, UConn gains nothing from being in the BE. Literally nothing, unless we want to give up completely and be a basketball only school. Which is the true way to irrelevance.
 
GirlBoo1020 said:
You seem to misunderstand me. I am not saying the Big 12 will kill the basketball programs but being in the Big 12 when the Big 10 and SEC pull away from the NCAA will. No NCAA, no NCAA tournament will kill college basketball almost completely but I don't see UConn being part of the group of basketball schools those schools DO include, IF they include anyone else, when they create whatever it is they will have to create to replace the NCAA tournament, unless they are affiliated with a strong basketball conference which ,whatever leftovers from the Big 12 will be left will not make.

Again 200 million, 400 million 1 billion dollars going to the university or the state of connecticut or the united states of america or the king of england doesn't make an iota of difference to me. THe athletic department will essentially be killed off by this move in under a decade.

Now you may think the Big 10 and SEC pulling away in all sports in unlikely. I'll entertain a non dooms day option for a moment because I think them pulling away in just football is potentially more likely. In which case, I think conferences would realign to make more sense regionally for non-football sports, in which case UConn could easily be left in the dust having alienated any conference that would make sense for UConn.

I just don't see any way going to the big 12 is anything but a death sentence for UConn athletics long term, even if maybe they do get to update a dorm or two because of the pay days.
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I share your concern for the evolving state of college athletics. As it drifts more towards a pure business model and less from an academic activity model I find it more difficult to remain engaged by it.

That said, I think you're missing the point when you so emphatically state well money doesn't matter. It does. It is critically necessary to be able to maintain the program. Without it, we will eventually wither and die as an athletic program well, at least as a relevant athletic program.
 
MSGRET said:
I might be able to convince the wife to travel to either AZ or UT so that I can see UConn play live. The only game I ever saw was in Reno when they had Gabby's homecoming game.
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Either one would be a 6 hour drive for me. That's doable.
 
GirlBoo1020 said:
You seem to misunderstand me.


Now you may think the Big 10 and SEC pulling away in all sports in unlikely. I'll entertain a non dooms day option for a moment because I think them pulling away in just football is potentially more likely.
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With current Ncaa tourney contract, and proposed House settlement payments to former athletes running to 2033, the big conferences can't pull away til then.

If just SEC and Big 10 move on their own, UConn has a much better chance to join there coming from Big12 than Big East (not to mention money difference).

I agree with you that there will be a split. I just think it will be all of the p4. That will leave a new basketball tourney with 64 big schools and no cinderellas.

Sadly ncaa tourney would then become a second tier event for smaller D1 schools.
 
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