Gonzaga meets with Big 12 leaders to discuss joining conference: reports

Gonzaga AD reportedly met with Big 12 commissioner last week in Texas

As college athletics turn a new page, it was seemingly inevitable that Gonzaga University would, at the very least, entertain the possibility of leaving the West Coast Conference (WCC) for greener pastures. College football spearheaded the realignment trend, while name, image and likeness have placed a greater emphasis on program prestige, location and of course, financial resources to grow individual brands. Rumors of Gonzaga fleeing the WCC had been steady well before the rest of the landscape shifted, but the possibility of joining a power conference is even more likely.

According to multiple reports, GU athletic director Chris Standiford met with Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormack in Frisco, Texas last week to discuss the idea of the Zags joining the conference. ESPN was the first to report the meeting.

For the Zags, who have been transparent about their intentions with the WCC, the move to a power conference makes sense for a handful of reasons. GU has a history with Big 12 opponents over the last few seasons, including regular season games against Texas, Texas Tech Kansas and West Virginia in addition to a highly anticipated championship rematch against Baylor this season. With BYU joining the conference and a home-and-home series with the Longhorns underway, GU’s interest in scheduling games against the conference’s top-flight programs is ongoing.

And with those top-25 matchups come the big bucks. In total, Big 12 schools received a record $42.6 million in the 2021-22 season, $28 million of which was from TV deals alone. The conference just recently agreed to a new TV deal that will allow the league to provide almost $32 million to its members starting in the 2025-26 athletic season. And if there’s any stock in what Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard thinks, each program could soon bring in close to $50 million annually.

Obviously, college football has a lot to do with those figures, but that hasn’t stopped Yormack from pursuing other basketball-heavy schools. The Big 12 will have added BYU, Cincinnati and Houston by the 2024-25 athletic year. The conference boasts the two most recent champions — Kansas and Baylor — while Texas Tech made the Final Four in 2019 as well. 

Then there’s the Big East option to consider for GU, a route that would make a lot of sense for college basketball purposes. Both sides have had talks according to reports, as have GU and the Pac-12.

Any move to a power conference is a risk given the lack of football, but the landscape of college athletics seems to be pushing for GU to make a move one way or another.