Skip to main content

AD Yurachek: Houston isn't eying Pac-12 move

  • Author:
  • Publish date:

A recent meeting between the University of Houston's athletic director and the commissioner of the Pac-12 Conference is unlikely to lead to any changes in the college athletics landscape.

The Houston Chronicle reported Monday that Houston athletic director Hunter Yurachek spoke with the Pac-12's Larry Scott in San Francisco last month, and that conference expansion was among the topics on the table.

However, Yurachek told CBS Sports' Dennis Dowd later Monday that he did not make a bid to have his school join the West Coast power conference.

"There was no pitch or anything," Yurachek told CBS Sports. "There's no substance to that (Chronicle report) at all."

Yurachek said he stopped in San Francisco to see Scott en route to the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.

"I emailed his office," Yurachek told CBS Sports. "He agreed to meet me and spent 30 or 45 minutes with me. I had never met Larry Scott in my life. ... Larry told me they're not interested in expanding. He said, 'I had to pull teeth just to get them to add Colorado and Utah.'"

Houston, a member of the American Athletic Conference, is viewed as a candidate to join the Big 12, which could expand from its current 10-team alignment.

Other possibilities for Big 12 expansion, according to the Chronicle, include Cincinnati, BYU, Memphis, Central Florida, South Florida, Connecticut, Boise State and Colorado State.