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Rumor: UConn unlikely to ever join Big 12 but Pac-12 schools, six ACC schools can join

By Andrew Hughes

Conference realignment has drawn a hard line in the sand, and it'll have effects on the Big 12, Pac-12, and ACC
Conference realignment has drawn a hard line in the sand, and it'll have effects on the Big 12, Pac-12, and ACC / Bob Levey/GettyImages
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Longtime college sports radio host Greg Swaim reports that basketball-only schools won't be joining the Big 12 anytime soon; eliminating the chance UConn ever brings Dan Hurley's dynastic college hoops program to Brett Yormark's basketball-centric conference. While the Huskies football program wasn't deemed big-time enough for the Big 12, Oregon State, Wazzu, and six ACC schools were.

Swaim believes the ACC will lose Power conference status with the losses. The Big 12, though, would become the country's biggest conference with 24 members.

"So was asked for the most likely prediction for Big 12 expansion, and that's an easy one...(Wazzu) and (Oregon State), with a very interesting, and highly complicated, financial deal, along with six of the ACC teams to jump first to create the 24 team B12," Swaim wrote.

"Those that don't take the deal will get left behind to join what will become the G7 after the ACC drops out of what will become the P3. It's important to note that there won't be any basketball only members, as conference members have recently made that crystal clear."

ACC can be UConn's future conference home after conference realignment

The six schools the ACC would likely lose most certainly included FSU and Clemson given the summer of lawsuits from the schools to the conference and vice versa, UNC and Virginia given their market values, and then some combination of Louisville, Miami, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Pitt, and NC State. Of course, some of these schools, particularly UNC and Virginia, can be options for the SEC and Big Ten.

What's left would have to supplant itself with depth, but the good news is that some great basketball programs would be left behind -- namely, Duke and Syracuse -- so UConn could have a sensible home in this reimagined ACC.

An ACC contingency plan that includes the Huskies, Memphis, Tulane, Wazzu, Oregon State, and USF is at the conceptual level, but it's out there. There's enough out there to still have a conference after a potential Big 12 raid.

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