Report: Big 12 resumes ‘high-level’ talks about adding Gonzaga; Bulldogs could join league by 2024-25

In mid-August, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark indicated that conversations about adding Gonzaga and UConn as basketball-only members had been tabled.

“Right now, we’re done,” Yormark said at the time. “We had a strategy and effectively we’ve been able to execute it. Initially, I wasn’t sure if we’d grow to 14 or 16 (schools). I think 16 was kind of a dream scenario.”

But things tend to change fast in this era of conference realignment, and it didn’t take long for speculation regarding Gonzaga and the Big 12 to resurface.

According to a report from The Messenger’s Seth Davis, Yormark and the Big 12 have resumed “high-level” talks with Gonzaga about adding the Bulldogs to the conference, potentially as early as the 2024-25 season.

A Gonzaga source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Spokesman-Review on Monday the report is accurate and indicated the two parties have been in discussion about bringing the Bulldogs aboard as a 17th member.

For Gonzaga to join the conference by 2024-25, the two sides would have to come to a deal by the end of the year, if not much earlier, per The Messenger’s report.

Gonzaga’s men’s basketball program, which has qualified for 26 NCAA Tournaments since 1995 and made eight consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16, makes the Bulldogs an enticing option for the Big 12, but the school would be bringing all 16 of its sports to the conference, according to the report.

Yormark had previously said the conference was not interested in making any other realignment moves after the Big 12 added four Pac-12 schools – Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State – this summer, which came as BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston were bracing for their first year in the conference.

“I did have conversations with UConn and Gonzaga, and unfortunately, things didn’t work out, only because the dream scenario unfolded for us, so those conversations are no longer,” Yormark said on the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast.

Momentum surrounding Gonzaga and the Big 12 started to mount in the summer of 2022 and continued when Gonzaga athletic director Chris Standiford reportedly met with Yormark in the Dallas area prior to the Bulldogs’ preseason exhibition game against Tennessee in Frisco, Texas.

The two parties reportedly met again in Austin prior to the Zags’ highly-anticipated nonleague game against Texas, a Big 12 member which will switch to the SEC next year .

According to a source, conversation between Gonzaga and the Big 12 had been on pause until recently when the two sides reopened realignment talks. Monday’s report from The Messenger suggests the Big 12’s presidents have given Yormark permission to continue negotiations with Gonzaga.

The latest round of realignment rumors figure to be a major talking point when Gonzaga travels to Las Vegas for the West Coast Conference Media Day later this week.

Stu Jackson spoke about the importance of retaining Gonzaga as a WCC member shortly after being appointed the league’s new commissioner last spring.

“Where we stand today, they’re obviously a valuable member of our conference, the gold standard and as we sit here in real time, they’re a member of the WCC,” Jackson told The Spokesman-Review.

“I don’t get the sense they’re going anywhere anytime soon. That doesn’t mean the conversations will cease but if I can offer an opinion, it’s been a positive experience for them.

“But in terms of retaining them, as a conference we have to continue to get better.”