Big 12 Opens Up Discussions With UConn (For The 800th Time)

Well, here we go again. 

UConn and the Big 12 are connected. This is probably the fourth time this rumor has gotten to the point journalists are reporting on it. 

As we all know, UConn's basketball program can hang anywhere. That was never the issue with them, it's always been football. If the football team hired a good coach instead of Paul Pasqualoni in 2011, they would be in the ACC or Big 12 by now.

Brett Yormark, the Big 12 commissioner, has long flirted with UConn. According to The Athletic, Yormark opened discussions back up with UConn this year, but he doesn't have the go ahead from the Big 12 presidents to extend an invite. 

Will the football team be included in this?

According to the sources, if the Big 12 did accept UConn, its football program would not join the league until the next television rights contract, or at the very least for several years.

As with any realignment, everything comes down to money. ESPN has flirted with the idea of giving the Big 12 more money if UConn is accepted, allowing other Big 12 programs to get the $31.7 million per year they were promised in the new TV deal starting in 2025. 

UConn fans won't want to hear this, but it would be the easiest yes of all time for them if they're offered. Yeah, the Big East is great for basketball and all, but in a football-dominated world, UConn needs somebody to save their sinking ship. Without football, the basketball team will fall behind. 

Do I wish we could go back to the 2000's Big East? Yes, of course. This whole realignment thing has gotten out of control, but UConn has to make the right call for their future. Plus, UConn ends up in the best basketball conference in the country.