The Big 12 is set to expand next summer, and with that will come multiple schools who have rich basketball history.
Cincinnati, who Huggins knows well along with Houston, BYU, and UCF are joining the Big 12, while at some point Texas and Oklahoma will depart for the SEC.
On Wednesday, it was reported Gonzaga was in talks with new Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark about possibly joining the Big 12. The Bulldogs are in Spokane, Washington, which geographically, is the opposite way the Big 12 has gone with the additions of UCF and Cincinnati, but similar to the path of BYU.
Huggins, who has faced Gonzaga and head coach Mark Few multiple times in his career addressed the on the rumor of Gonzaga joining West Virginia in the Big 12, saying he thinks it would be very different for the Bulldogs than it is now.
“I think it would be a tremendous awakening for Gonzaga,” Huggins said. “Get in this league and play who we play day after day, I think it would be a tremendous awakening. You don’t get to make your own schedule in the Big 12.”
Huggins would also weigh in on Big 12 expansion, saying none of the major conferences are who they used to be.
“I look around obviously at what’s going on, but is the Big Ten the Big Ten anymore — I don’t think it’s the Big Ten anymore. All the conferences, the SEC isn’t the SEC anymore, the ACC certainly isn’t the ACC anymore,” Huggins said.
Yormark began as Big 12 Commissioner on Aug. 1, and since then he has signed a new television deal and has promoted the Big 12 on a national level.
The Mountaineer head coach recently took a trip with Yormark to help promote the Big 12 in New York City, and said Yormark has a lot of good plans for the future of the conference.
“I know our current commissioner is full of energy, he’s excited about the opportunity and he thinks that this league can do and be something very, very special. And I hope he’s right,” Huggins said. “I know he has unbridled enthusiasm. He’s a go-getter now. He knows a lot of people, he’s been through it not in a basketball sense but in other ways to build a more competitive, more television worthy deal. I think that’s good.”
Yormark has been the CEO of the Brooklyn Nets and has a large basketball background.
“I would like that anybody would have a basketball background that’s from a basketball league,” Huggins said. “This is and is going to be even more a basketball league with what’s going on. There’s no doubt about that. That football driving the train thing, that train’s slowing down. And the basketball thing is just kicking up.”
Huggins made a name for himself at West Virginia while the Mountaineers were in the Big East. The Big East Tournament would be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and teams West Virginia would face were much more regionalized than it is now that the Mountaineers are in the Big 12.
“Back in the Big East it was different. Fans could jump in the car and go to a game. All that’s changing,” Huggins said. “Think about the fans that we had at the Big East Tournament. You don’t have that anymore. You don’t have that in this league.”
Huggins said when he hears schools being mentioned such as Gonzaga, shows Yormark recognizes the power of basketball in the Big 12.
“Somebody says something about Gonzaga coming in the league, come on,” Huggins said. “The basketball part of it, I think he can go lure the best. That makes it pretty exciting. Looks like the football thing is going away from the league, not going to the league.”
Losing the Sooners and the Longhorns means two traditional football powerhouses are leaving the conference, while the Bearcats and Cougars are joining the Big 12 and have had tons of success in basketball.
“What I’m saying is you’re looking at a whole bunch of football moving to different leagues and leagues that are going to bring more money quite frankly. The school’s going to get more money, that’s what it’s about,” Huggins said.
Huggins would add, “this league’s going to be an absolute incredible league when [Yormark] gets done with it.”
