The Fat 12 is not going to upload Gonzaga and UConn, two basketball powerhouses, nearest preliminary conversations concerning the attainable strikes, Fat 12 commissioner Brett Yormark mentioned on Wednesday.

Yormark joined John Ourand and Andrew Marchand at the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” to talk about the league’s evolution nearest the Fat 12 lately added former %-12 faculties Arizona, Arizona Environment, Utah and Colorado. Terminating while, the Fat 12 introduced the additions of Houston, Cincinnati, the College of Central Florida and BYU.

Yormark mentioned talks about most likely including Gonzaga, the West Coast Convention powerhouse, and UConn, the reigning nationwide champion in males’s basketball and essentially the most dominant pressure in ladies’s basketball over the latter two decades, have ended because of the ones contemporary growth strikes.

“I did have conversations with UConn and Gonzaga and unfortunately, things didn’t work out only because the dream scenario unfolded for us, so those conversations are no longer,” Yormark mentioned at the podcast. “I’m a big admirer of both of those programs. They’re fantastic for all the right reasons but I’m focused on the transition of those four [new schools] right now.”

Yormark’s strikes have now not simplest enhanced the league’s soccer power – with Oklahoma and Texas all set to reduce for the SEC in 2024 – however they have got additionally higher the ability of The us’s very best males’s basketball league. The Fat 12 has completed first in KenPom’s convention scores in 8 of the latter 10 seasons and captured two of the latter 3 nationwide championships. The addition of Arizona and Houston will permit the Fat 12 to uphold that crown for the foreseeable year. Yormark mentioned he believes basketball is “undervalued” within the dialog about growth.

“We are the deepest conference, I think, in America when it comes to football but arguably, we are the No. 1 conference in basketball and I’m excited about that,” he mentioned.

He additionally mentioned basketball is essential to the league’s plans for global partnerships. Kansas and Houston will play games in Mexico in 2024, the league lately introduced.

General, Yormark mentioned growth has modified the Fat 12’s worth in year TV negotiations.

“We feel now – being in 10 states, having over 90 million people in our footprint, being in four time zones – gives the Big 12 a chance to do some amazing things when we get back into that next TV negotiation,” Yormark mentioned at the podcast. “So the No. 1 guiding principle for us was value creation and it will always be that as we think about expansion or for that matter, anything else we do.”

Yormark mentioned he has spoken to %-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff nearest contemporary growth strikes jeopardized the year of his convention. He mentioned he instructed the alternative Energy 5 commissioners a while in the past that there can be instances after they would “compete” and alternative instances after they must unify.

“I still have a little bit of a knot in my stomach,” Yormark mentioned. “I never want my gain to be anyone else’s loss. On the heels of not just Colorado but of all four corner schools coming, I texted [Kliavkoff], reached out to him. … He and I spoke last week and, effectively, I said, ‘I’m sorry it came down to this and I’m sorry I put you in a tough position, but this was something we had to do. … And I’m sorry that my gain is your loss.’ And we had a very collegial conversation. [Kliavkoff] was fantastic.”