UConn and the Pac-12 Conference have talked about the Huskies possibly, maybe, becoming a football-only member.
Nothing formal materialized.
No offers were made.
It was just — talk.
Newsworthy? Or nah?
UConn has an independent football program. It discussed scheduling with the Pac-12 in other sports, too, I’m told, but it hasn’t seemed at all interested in leaving the Big East with its Olympic sports.
As former Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle told me in the spring of 2025, “There was one particular school that was 24 hours away from joining (the Pac-12) that would’ve sent shockwaves.”
Tinkle was talking about UConn, I was later told.
It never happened, naturally.
It feels appropriate to put these things in print again on Friday, as more expansion talk reports came out of nowhere. UConn’s football future came up again. It opened a can of questions for the Pac-12 and some others.
The American Conference?
Overtures from James Madison, Miami (Ohio), and… UConn?