Gonzaga athletic director Chris Standiford met with Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark final week at a resort in Frisco, Texas, whereas the Bulldogs have been within the state to play Tennessee in a preseason scrimmage, sources confirmed to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd and Matt Norlander. The two sides mentioned the potential of Gonzaga becoming a member of the convention sooner or later. ESPN was first to report the assembly between Standiford and Yormark on Wednesday. 

Sources advised CBS Sports that Gonzaga has engaged in discussions with a number of leagues all through the previous yr — together with the Big East — because it explores choices for a possible transfer to an influence convention. Gonzaga coach Mark Few is fervently searching for a state of affairs that may put this system in a greater spot within the coming years, sources advised CBS Sports. Gonzaga has lorded over the WCC for the previous twenty years, however Few desires this system higher positioned each time he retires. BYU is leaving the WCC for the Big 12 in 2023, and it is anticipated the WCC will take a step again when that occurs.

Yormark has publicly dedicated to retaining the Big 12 open for enterprise with realignment shaking up the hierarchy of school athletics. With Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC by 2025 and Cincinnati, UCF, BYU and Houston becoming a member of the Big 12 in 2023, Yormark has persistently been an aggressor to attempt to enhance the league’s positioning within the market. 

“I’ve telegraphed my intentions,” Yormark said last week at a luncheon. “You know, I decided I want to take a different approach. I’m going to telegraph. I want to be very transparent, open and honest in my desires to go national, to expand.”

Gonzaga has received 10 straight regular-season WCC titles and 9 of the final 10 convention tournaments, a part of a dominant run within the league that’s nearly remarkable. Under Few, the Bulldogs have groomed a nationwide model as one of many true bluebloods of the game and a continuing contender within the NCAA Tournament. They have twice made the NCAA Tournament ultimate since 2017 however completed because the runner-up each occasions. Their final title sport look resulted in a blowout loss to Baylor in 2021. 

Adding Gonzaga to its ranks in basketball would solely bolster the Big 12’s fame as essentially the most difficult convention in school hoops. In eight of the final 10 seasons, the Zags have completed as a top-10 workforce at KenPom.com, with three of these situations — together with every of the final two seasons — ending at No. 1. In that very same timeframe the Big 12 has completed No. 1 in KenPom’s convention rankings, which is schedule-adjusted, and completed No. 2 within the convention rankings two of the opposite three years. 

Since Few took over the Gonzaga program in 1999, the Bulldogs have accrued a 658-129 file, which incorporates 21 convention regular-season championships, 18 convention event championships and 22 NCAA Tournament appearances. Their 367 wins since 2011 are most amongst all school hoops groups, besting Kansas (354), Duke (334), Kentucky (330) and Arizona (319), in line with College Basketball Reference data.