Agree, this is a big downside risk…
Yormark strategy if followed through and approved by the schools is to create a premiere CBB league and sell as a separate package in the future. He’s trying to close the revenue gap between the B1G/SEC. He’s sat down and figured out this is the only way, snap up the premium BB brands.
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The problem with saying, “if so and so leaves then_____” is that this could apply to any of us.
There are a lot of programs that could fall off the universe if a coach leaves.
The other thing is that Gonzaga is a basketball institution. Why would we think they can’t find a great replacement coach?
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No to Gonzaga
No to UCONN
No to SMU
No to Memphis
No to USF
We will soon have BETTER football + Basketball options to select.
Let’s not not make a desperation add and forget about the long game
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Like who? Seriously curious who has a better bball brand than UConn and Gonzaga that we can pull in?
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Football drives conference realignment and expansion more so than basketball.
Gonzaga adds nothing and UConn very little in that regard.
Not saying Colorado and Arizona are doing that great these days, but they’d bring more to the table football wise than either one.
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Yormark is playing the long game, he knows there no big brand CFB coming to the B12 that will w boost revenue significantly to match what B1G.& SEC get. Hence the BB brands strategy because he knows the B1G and SEC will never do a hybrid conference, at least I speculate that’s what he’s thinking. Sitting in his seat makes all the sense in the world to snatchup CBB big brands not B12
P.S. people saying it add nothing to revenue must know more than Yormark
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Gonzaga basketball is a bigger lock to succeed in the big 12 than colorado, arizona schools, UH, UCF, Cincy, and BYU.
Gonzaga basketball brings more big games and more eyes to TVs.
No to UConn and all the others but Zags would be a hell of an addition.
What the talk about adding Gonzaga and Connecticut tells me is that Yormark is serious about having separate media deals for football and basketball and maybe a third, for non-football and non-basketball related sports. Currently, basketball is B12’s flagship, and should be at least as valuable as the B10 and SEC. It needs to continue being the top basketball conference when the current media deal ends in 2031.
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Why would we want to recreate the Old Big East model?
That was a disaster.
Let’s act like the SEC and B1G 10, and not a basketball member + football member type of conference.
Plus, we just HAD UCONN as conference mates and they barely held their own.
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All new 4 schools, UH, Cincy, UCF, BYU come from large to decent size TV markets and have a proven track record in ALL sports. If a coach moves on, all 4 schools will have the TV contract money and resources to replace. All have 40k or more football stadiums which brings the most in revenue.
I’m more of a college hoops fan and I’m still saying adding Basketball only teams is risky. Adding Arizona and Colorado for all sports is not risky. It strengthens the footprint, gives BYU more travel partners in all sports. Only G5 conferences add basketball only or football only members. P5 conferences do not make these types of moves…
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the Big 12 adding Gonzaga would be huge for basketball, huge. and to say they would fall off if Few retired, you could say the exact same thing about UH basketball when Sampson hangs them up.
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Has Yormark made a statement that he is trying to put together an expanded Be All to End All Basketball group that would be able generate larger separate revenue streams for the Basketball side only?
Or is this speculation on what Yormark is up to?
I could kind of see the thinking behind it. For basketball it would be similar to the B1G & SEC getting bigger media deals because of their football strength. Say maybe the Big12 gets a 40% increase in the basketball media rights portion.
Hey, I wasn’t giving a hard time. That’s why said, I’m seriously curious about who you were alluding to.
Would you mind just sharing more on your thoughts without being defensive?
You completely ignored my question.
I’m genuinely interested in your idea.
It would be cool IF that were true.
OTOH, I have a hard time believing that college basketball is truly worth enough to make Big 12 basketball comparable money wise to the SEC and B1G in football.
Basketball has never been close to football in the past in terms of being a “money” sport.
Yormark has stated his plan is to do separate TV contracts for football and basketball in the future to maximize revenue.
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No to basketball only schools.
That screams desperation, G-Conference level.
The Big East is a basketball only conference , and was “once” a BCS hybrid conference.
None of the other P5s are hybrid conferences.
Its a cheap money grab but not the correct way to build a P3? Conference.
Plus Gonzaga and UCONN don’t even make sense form a footprint standpoint!
Close the revenue gap, to put us on parity with them is a stretch imo… But who knows? Yormark crunching the numbers may be able to do it, along with his other ideas like playing games in Mexico and his wanting the B12 to be more hip and cool to the younger generation, it’s all open to question. Just know the man lifted NASCAR to heights , exposure and revenue wise they never dreamed of.
In our AAC we swapped out Navy with Wichita St. for Basketball.
The Big 12 can do this. We could have 12 teams for Football and 14 or so for Basketball. Adding UConn and Gonzaga would make us THE Men’s Basketball Conference.
This is not crazy.
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We don’t know what demographic and viewership data he has. He may have data that says, for instance, you average basketball fan watches more total sports television that your average football fan on a one-to-one basis. Maybe basketball doesn’t beat football head to head but college sports gets more juice per squeeze from basketball fans.
If that were the case, as an example, then you might aim your marketing at basketball fans to grow your brand in other sports.
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