Big 12 Expansion Talks 'Expected to Take Place' This Week in West Virginia
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In exactly one month and one day, the Big 12 Conference will officially welcome BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston to the league. In the meantime, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark will continue his pursuit of expansion, with the big three targets being Colorado, Gonzaga, and UConn, according to multiple reports.
Adding Connecticut and Gonzaga to the league would make the Big 12 the clear powerhouse in college basketball. You could argue that it already claims possession of that title with 60-70% of its members punching a ticket to the NCAA Tournament on a year-to-year basis.
As for Colorado, they have had "substantive" talks with Big 12 about rejoining the league, according to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports.
"Colorado and the Big 12 have met face-to-face while involved in consistent talks over a period of several months, according to multiple sources. It was made clear that a move to the Big 12 would not be made without the support of football coach Deion Sanders."
Despite the ongoing talks, Colorado athletic director Rick George attempted to cool the rumors down in an interview with Brian Howell of BuffZone.
“We’re members of the Pac-12, we’re proud members of the Pac-12 and we’ve got to see where our media rights deal lands and where our conference goes. In a perfect world, we’d love to be in the Pac-12, but we also have to do what’s right for Colorado at the end of the day. We’ll evaluate things as we move forward.”
In addition to the three aforementioned institutions, Arizona, Arizona State, San Diego State, and UNLV have also been linked to the Big 12 in previous months. Per Ross Dellenger, the pursuit of Gonzaga, San Diego State, UConn, and UNLV is "somewhat contingent on whether the league can grab any Pac-12 defections."
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