The Big 12 has resumed talks with Gonzaga about potentially joining the league in 2024-25 as a 17th member for all sports except football, which Gonzaga does not have, multiple people with direct knowledge told me.
“There’s still a long way to go, but they have started talking about it again,” said a league official who was not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly.
Seth Davis of The Messenger first reported the news.
The person with knowledge of the league’s activities told me the latest development comes in part as a response to seeing how well undefeated No. 5 Oklahoma (6-0) and No. 9 Texas (5-1) are doing in football as they play their final seasons in the Big 12 before heading to the SEC for the 2024-25 season. The Big 12 currently has 14 schools after adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF this season. Next year they bring in four former Pac-12 schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — and will be at 16 schools.
By adding Gonzaga as a 17th, the Big 12 could bolster arguably the top basketball conference in the nation. Baylor and Kansas won back-to-back NCAA championships in 2021 and ‘22, with Baylor beating then-unbeaten Gonzaga in the 2021 title game. Gonzaga also reached the championship game in 2017, losing to North Carolina.
If the Big 12 were able to add Gonzaga, it could bolster its position as the best basketball conference in the nation, one Big 12 basketball coach told me. The league could feature regular-season games like Kansas vs. Gonzaga, Baylor vs. Gonzaga and Arizona vs. Iowa State, among others.
UConn, which won its fifth NCAA championship in April, had also been targeted by Yormark for expansion, but is not currently being discussed.
Yormark has made no secret of his desire to add Gonzaga.
“I like Gonzaga,” Yormark told reporters in March. "Obviously a great program. My focus right now is to see what happens throughout our industry. There's a lot of moving parts. I continue to have conversations with Gonzaga.”
After the Big 12 added Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State & Utah this summer, Yormark then said his expansion plans were “done.”
“Right now, we’re done,” Yormark told The Arizona Republic in August. “We had a vision. We had a strategy and effectively we’ve been able to execute it. Initially, I wasn’t sure if we’d go to 14 or 16. I think 16 was kind of a dream scenario.”
In fiscal 2022, Big 12 schools received payouts of $42 million to $44.9 million, third among Power Five, according to USA Today.
The coach said Gonzaga would potentially get $2 million if accepted into the league, a pittance compared to the other schools.
One issue would be how to handle a 17-team conference tournament, but one person with direct kn0wledge of the league’s plans said there would be a play-in game involving the 16th and 17th seeds.
