The 16-team leagues like the Big Ten, the SEC, and the Big 12 (and the 17-team ACC) are all division-less in 2024-25. It’s a free-for-all and could be highly entertaining. But what happens when one of them goes to 20 teams? Is it the wisest decision to stick with one big, bloated league? In the case of the Big 12, I think not.
The Big 12 is now circling UConn and will likely vote soon to add the Huskies in hoops as early as 2026. Signing UConn now takes them off the market, which is meaningful in case the ACC were to throw a hail mary to keep their league together. But adding UConn signals to the East Coast basketball schools that Brett Yormark is serious about his basketball super-league. UConn could lead to heavy flirtations with Syracuse, Duke, Louisville, and others.
The conventional thinking is that UNC and UVA could head to the Big 10 and perhaps Clemson and FSU to the SEC. Obviously, the Big 12 will talk to them and would love any of the four. Realistically, Syracuse, Duke, and Louisville are probably the league’s best bet.
Can you imagine a basketball conference with UConn, Syracuse, Duke, Louisville, Kansas, Baylor, Arizona, and Houston? That’s 21 national titles and 68 Final Four appearances (that includes the title and two Final Fours that Louisville had stripped). That’s insanity. Yormark has repeatedly said he wants to sell basketball media rights separately from football. This super-league makes that hope become a reality.
How it affects UH
For over two years, the Big 12’s presidents and ADs have been discussing how to divide the conference, what to do to ensure the future, how to make the most money, and how to secure a spot if there is a breakaway from the NCAA.
How to divide the conference is a big deal for UH. In virtually every scenario the league has looked at, UH gets moved away from the Texas schools. In the 12-team Big 12 and the current 16-team league, UH is pretty much the leftover to fill in the eastern flank or the other pod. It’s not pretty:
Big 12 Pods
| Western | Big 8 | TexOk Triangle | Other 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Colorado | Baylor | Cincinnati |
| Arizona State | Iowa State | Oklahoma State | Houston |
| BYU | Kansas | TCU | UCF |
| Utah | Kansas State | Texas Tech | WVU |
8-Team Divisions
| Southwest | "Eastern" | |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Cincinnati | |
| Arizona State | Colorado | |
| Baylor | Houston | |
| BYU | Iowa State | |
| Colorado | Kansas | |
| Oklahoma State | Kansas State | |
| TCU | UCF | |
| Texas Tech | WVU |
However, UH fares much better with 20 teams if each new member is pulled from the East Coast. The natural divide would pull Kansas, Kansas State, and Iowa State into an eastern grouping and push the four Texas schools and Oklahoma State to a merger with the five western schools. Most importantly for Houston, it keeps them together with the other Texas schools.
10-Team Divisons
| Closer to Asia | Closer to Europe | |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Cincinnati | |
| Arizona State | Duke | |
| Baylor | Iowa State | |
| BYU | Kansas | |
| Colorado | Kansas State | |
| Houston | Louisville | |
| Oklahoma State | Syracuse | |
| TCU | UCF | |
| Texas Tech | UConn | |
| Utah | WVU |
With 20 basketball schools, perhaps you play everyone once each season. Maybe not. But with football, ten teams in a division is natural and gives many possibilities. One is that teams focus on their division and only meet the other division in the championship game. If that happened and UH was not paired with Texas schools, the Big 12 would be no better than the American Athletic Conference regarding rivalries, fans, and fan-driven revenue generation.
If UH Athletics is to sustain itself, fan-driven revenue must reach another level. Subsidies from E. Cullen and one-off payments from VC groups or a title sponsor for the conference only push the can down the road. Fans must do more, and the Houston community must invest, but UH also needs to compete against the Texas schools annually. Adding UConn is perhaps the first step to getting into the best long-term situation for Houston.
