Big 12 Expansion Bombshell

What better time to get a realignment bomb dropped on us than right before the Big 12 season kicks off? 

UConn to the Big 12 is back on the table, with Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark making another run at convincing Big 12 presidents and athletic directors to invite the Huskies. It’s far from a slam dunk, but I’m on board with letting Yormark roll the dice here, and I’ll explain why below. 

The Coach Prime-Sean Keeler saga continues to fascinate me, West Virginia is finding motivation everywhere for its season opener against Penn State, and we take one final look at your Big 12 season hot takes today in Open for Business.

What You Need to Know

• Multiple reports indicate the Big 12 is having in-depth discussions about adding UConn again, though a vote on inviting the Huskies isn’t imminent. Yormark presented his case for inviting UConn to Big 12 presidents on Monday, just days after UConn AD David Benedict presented to Big 12 ADs last week. 

• CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reports that after Monday’s UConn meeting, there are two “no” votes from Big 12 schools and six “yes” votes on adding the Huskies. At least 12 of the 16 schools need to vote yes for an invite to be extended.

• Coach Prime won’t be taking any more questions from Denver Post Columnist Sean Keeler. The Denver Post reports that Colorado’s sports information staff informed them that Keeler is still credentialed, but Prime will no longer answer his questions because of “sustained, personal attacks.”

• West Virginia is taking its season opener against Penn State on Saturday personally. DL Edward Vesterinen says the Mountaineers didn’t forget Penn State scoring a meaningless TD on them in the final seconds last year to run up the score. 

• Utah coach Kyle Whittingham says he’s going the extra mile to protect quarterback Cam Rising from another injury this year. There will be no designed runs for the Utes' seventh-year star this year. 

• Patrick Mahomes signed six Texas Tech athletes to NIL deals with “Team Mahomes,” including freshman receiver Micah Hudson. The announcement came just a day after he donated $5 million to the Red Raiders South End Zone project.

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UConn Worth the Risk?

I’m not surprised that UConn is back in the Big 12 conversation.

I was told earlier this summer that Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark wasn’t giving up on the Huskies, even after temporarily backing off his internal push when the Big 12 landed the four corner schools from the Pac 12. 

Not everyone agrees, but I’m very open to the Big 12 adding the Huskies – on these terms, at least. 

The reported proposal is that the Big 12 would get UConn men’s and women’s basketball (and all sports except football) in 2026, while football wouldn’t come along until the next TV deal in 2031. Yormark reportedly told schools it wouldn’t cost the league anything right now. 

Of course, the risk is that UConn must prepare its football program to legitimately compete at the Power Four level in the next seven years. And that is absolutely a risk. The Huskies haven’t had a winning season since 2010 and have won only 13 games in the last six seasons. 

If they’re still that program in 2031, they will drive down the money each school gets in the next football TV deal. 

But becoming the basketball version of SEC football, boosting the revenue potential of the Big 12 basketball brand in a separate 2031 TV deal, and adding the most prominent college sports brand in the entire Northeast is worth the gamble.

Plus, who knows what the college sports landscape will look like in seven years – will conferences as we know them even exist?

It’s a risk similar in structure to the private equity proposal the league is mulling over – huge short-term benefits and potential long-term consequences. 

The Positives

Adding UConn basketball immediately makes Big 12 hoops the equivalent of SEC football. 

You’d have the winners of the last four national championships in basketball with UConn, Kansas, and Baylor, plus two other elite programs in Arizona and Houston. 

A second-tier of Iowa State, Texas Tech, West Virginia, K-State, BYU, TCU, and Cincinnati gives the league legitimate depth to rival tier two of SEC football. 

Yes, football is absolutely king in virtually every major realignment decision, and anybody who tells you otherwise is fooling themselves. But a basketball product this elite still holds plenty of monetary value. 

It’s no secret that Brett Yormark wants to decouple the basketball media rights in 2031. That means splitting the basketball and football rights and selling them as separate packages. 

Getting top dollar for a behemoth basketball product that creates a wealth of inventory should add legitimate money to every Big 12 school’s bottom line. 

You’re also adding some Kansas insurance in case SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey decides to make a run at the Jayhawks and copy Yormark’s decoupling basketball plan. 

As women’s basketball continues to grow, having arguably the greatest women’s basketball program of all time is a bonus.

And beyond the sheer basketball prowess, it doesn’t hurt to add the best college sports brand in the Northeast, particularly when it’s ESPN’s hometown team.

The Pushback

Plain and simple, the main argument against this will be that UConn football will be an anchor that pulls down the conference. 

In a world where the Big 12 is fighting for every shred of respect it can get in the eyes of the College Football Playoff committee, how much would one of the absolute worst Power Five football programs hurt the perception of the league?

Without powerful brands at the top of the league, the main Big 12 selling point is parity. There aren’t many easy outs or obvious candidates to dominate, making it an intriguing and fun product for the casual viewer. 

It would hurt the narrative if UConn can’t get things figured out in seven years. 

The Huskies are also one of the country's most heavily subsidized athletic departments per Sportico, which raises doubts about their ability to make the financial commitment needed to raise their profile enough to legitimately compete in the revenue-sharing era.

For what it’s worth, Dennis Dodd reports there would be financial benchmarks for UConn to hit before the football program joined the league in 2031. 

Another line of pushback I’ve seen goes something like this:

I don’t think UConn's presence in the conference affects the pursuit of ACC schools at all. Florida State and Clemson will only come to the Big 12 if it’s their last option. 

That’s a “2 a.m. at the bar going home with the only girl who is left” situation. They’ll come if they have to, whether UConn is there or not. 

The same goes for any tier two ACC schools. If FSU, Clemson, and North Carolina get out, they will need a home that pays them better than the carcass of the ACC will. 

On that note, the timing of the Big 12’s pursuit might actually matter. The ACC could reach out to UConn in a desperate move to backfill if/when the big three brands break free. 

One criticism of the move that I do understand is this. 

League ADs have way too much on their plate right now. The four corner schools haven’t even played a game yet, and everybody is knee-deep in trying to find an extra $20 million in the budget for athlete revenue-sharing. The dust also hasn’t fully settled on how all of the House settlement changes will be implemented. 

But you have to take opportunities as they come. Fortune favors the bold, as they say. Realignment moves fast in this era – just look at everything that’s happened in the last three years. There is no time to sit around and wait if you can make a move that helps you.

The Bottom Line

Seven years is an eternity in this realignment landscape. Things could look drastically different by 2031, which I’m sure causes anxiety for some when considering adding UConn football. 

For me, it’s more of a reason to squeeze all the juice you can out of UConn hoops while taking your chances on what the landscape will look like later. 

In the Big 12’s position, you have to take chances. Playing by the same rules as the SEC and Big Ten won’t get you where you want to go. Just ask George Kliavkoff. 

Depending on the details, I’m in favor of trading short-term gain for long-term risk with UConn. 

Yormark’s bold mentality has done far more good than bad for the league since he took over. He has a track record of doing good business all across the sports landscape, from his days with NASCAR and the Brooklyn Nets to adding the four corner schools to the Big 12. 

It’s a complex and nuanced discussion, but at the end of the day, I’m letting it ride with Yormark.

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Your Hottest Big 12 Takes

We’re taking one final look at your hottest Big 12 takes for the upcoming season before things kick off on Thursday! 

Unfortunately for all of us, I don’t think this is a hot take. 

The bloodbath part will certainly be entertaining and create advantages for the league, but it will also make it tougher to get two teams into the playoffs. 

The bigger downer is worrying about the tiebreaker scenarios. The league already botched it big-time last year with two fewer teams to deal with when they changed a tiebreaker rule on the fly. 

With 16 teams, it stands to be even more complex this year. We better hope the league office spent some time playing out scenarios during the offseason. Using a copy editor might not hurt, either. 

I’ve been as down as anybody on Scott Satterfield at Cincinnati. It seemed like a weird hire from the start, and last year did nothing to inspire confidence. 

The schedule this year does make this possible, though. The Bearcats don’t play anybody in Kelly Ford’s top 50 over the first month of the season, with the toughest game being a week four home tilt with Houston. 

They also miss Utah, Oklahoma State, and Kansas on the Big 12 schedule. Take care of Arizona State and Houston at home, and you’ll have seven bites at the upset apple in conference play to get bowl-eligible. 

I probably wouldn’t predict it, but it’s possible. With Indiana transfer Brendan Sorsby taking over at quarterback, the vibes seem to be high. 

I like this one. I’d put the odds in this order: Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Houston. 

I think the Bears and Cougars will both improve this year for different reasons—a better roster in Waco and a better coach at Houston—but the Big 12 title conversation is a bridge or two too far this year. 

I seriously considered going with TCU first because of the upside. We just saw in a national championship game two years ago, and they have recruited better than every other Big 12 team over the last four years. 

But Joey McGuire recruits pretty well himself. 

I’m not a huge believer in either Behren Morton or Josh Hoover (yet), but Tech seemed closer to being a contender last year while battling a rash of quarterback injuries. 

This is a hot take with so many more qualified teams on paper to make a run at a title, but it wouldn’t shock me to see either TCU or Tech put it all together.