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Huge 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has renewed his pursuit of enlargement goal UConn, with league officers set for a gathering subsequent week the place the difficulty will probably be reintroduced for in-depth dialogue, a number of Huge 12 directors and broadcasting sources advised The Athletic.
Yormark, a Northeast native and former Brooklyn Nets government, has been speaking with the varsity since a minimum of final summer time earlier than the Huge 12 added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to develop to 16 colleges. In August 2023, he mentioned these talks had been “not.” Based on a number of Huge 12 directors, discussions resumed earlier this 12 months, however Yormark didn’t but have a consensus internally to increase an invitation.
It’s unclear whether or not assist amongst Huge 12 presidents has elevated in mild of this newest spherical of discussions, based on league sources briefed on the method. Any additional enlargement would require assist from a supermajority of 12 of 16 members in a president-level vote.
UConn declined to remark, whereas the Huge 12 didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Yormark has repeatedly expressed his need to place the Huge 12 because the nation’s premier basketball convention, suggesting faculty hoops is “undervalued” by TV companions. UConn, the reigning back-to-back nationwide champion in males’s basketball and a perennial energy in girls’s hoops — situated in a coveted Northeast tv market the convention doesn’t at the moment have a member in — would assist obtain that aim.
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Brett Yormark and the Huge 12 have solely gotten bolder after 12 months full of huge strikes
However for UConn, which rejoined the Huge East in 2020, the primary need for becoming a member of the Huge 12 can be to spice up its struggling soccer program, which has been an unbiased since leaving the AAC. The Huskies have received not more than three video games in seven of their previous eight soccer seasons, reaching a bowl recreation in 2022 earlier than slipping again to 3-9.
Based on the sources, if the Huge 12 did settle for UConn, its soccer program wouldn’t be a part of the league till the following tv rights contract, or on the very least for a number of years. When UMass joins the MAC subsequent 12 months, UConn will probably be certainly one of two remaining FBS independents, together with Notre Dame.
With a view to really feel comfy including one other faculty, the present members will need assurance that UConn’s addition wouldn’t dilute their shares of league income.
The Huge 12 is a 12 months away from starting a brand new six-year take care of ESPN and Fox that may pay its members a median of $31.7 million per faculty. The deal was agreed to earlier than the previous Pac-12 colleges’ additions, however ESPN was required to pay a pro-rata share to the 4 Energy 5 members. UConn, nevertheless, wouldn’t be assured the identical deal.
ESPN has beforehand thought of including more cash to the Huge 12’s tv deal, based on broadcasting sources briefed on the talks. ESPN is situated in Bristol, Conn., simply 40 miles from Storrs. Fox, the Huge 12’s different broadcast rights accomplice, could also be much less inclined so as to add cash because it already has UConn basketball as a part of its Huge East package deal.
Present members have been advised UConn’s addition can be “budget-neutral” and wouldn’t scale back convention income payouts to present members, based on a number of Huge 12 directors.
— The Athletic’s Chris Vannini contributed to this report.
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(Picture: Michael C. Johnson / USA Immediately)
