Gonzaga 'no longer' in discussions to join Big 12

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark shut down such speculation on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast

For several months, rumors about the Gonzaga Bulldogs joining the Big 12 in the near future ran rampant. Recent conference realignment moves stirred that pot even more.

But on Tuesday, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark made it clear the conference does not plan to add Gonzaga at this time. Yormark discussed the topic of expanding for the Zags and UConn on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast.

"I did have conversations with UConn and Gonzaga, and unfortunately, you know, things didn't work out only because the dream scenario unfolded for us," Yormark said. "So those conversations are no longer."

Yormark's "dream scenario" came true when the Big 12 board of directors voted unanimously to admit Arizona State, Arizona and Utah to the conference. Colorado also opted to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12 in July, putting the conference at 16 members by the start of the 2024-25 academic year.

"Right now, I'm focused on the transition of those four in and also how do I leverage the fact that [the Big 12] is now a 16-team league in 10 states with 90 million people in four different time zones," Yormark said.

The idea of Gonzaga leaving the West Coast Conference, which just expanded its media rights deal with ESPN on Tuesday, for the Big 12 picked up steam in the fall when athletic director Chris Standiford met with Yormark in Frisco, Texas while the Zags were in Dallas for a scrimmage against Tennessee.

The two sides met once again in November amid "mutual growing interest" for the Bulldogs to join the Big 12, per Bleacher Report's Doric Sam. The conference was set to lose Texas and Oklahoma in the next year, and the idea of adding another basketball powerhouse to one of the best leagues in the sport was enticing to Yormark.

However, talks with Gonzaga stalled as current Big 12 member schools pushed back on the idea of adding a non-football school from a mid-major conference. 

“We do see the upside in basketball moving forward for all the right reasons,” Yormark said during a Zoom press conference in June, referring in part to his desire to break out basketball from future television negotiations. “We think it's undervalued, and there's a chance for us to double down as the No. 1 basketball conference in America. But football is the driver, and we all know that."

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, the notion of Gonzaga joining the Big 12 was brought up by the conference with its television partners during conversations about the league's new media deal. The Big 12 agreed to a massive six-year contract extension with ESPN and Fox worth more than $2 billion that will keep the conference’s media rights with those networks through the 2030-31 college sports seasons.

Though the Zags were brought up in TV negotiations, the contract stated that if the Big 12 were to expand and add a non-Power 5 school, the payout per school would decrease for the league's current members. If schools weren't willing to share a larger slice of the pie, another possibility involved the conference allocating $100 million in combined exit fees from Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the SEC next season. 

"We're going to consider all options," Yormark said in that Zoom conference. "We do see the upside in basketball for all the right reasons. We think it is undervalued and there is a chance for us to double down as the No. 1 basketball conference in America."