Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said Wednesday that he had expansion talks around basketball with Gonzaga and UConn before the league opted to go in a different direction — landing its “dream scenario.”

Yormark made the comments as a guest on the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast.”

The Big 12 recently brought in Pac-12 programs Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado.

“Unfortunately, things didn’t work out only because the dream scenario unfolded for us, so those conversations are no longer,” Yormark told podcast hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand. “I’m a big admirer of both of those programs. They’re fantastic for all the right reasons but I’m focused on the transition of those four (new schools) right now.”

The already deep Big 12 adds perennial top 10 hoops programs in Arizona as well as Houston, one of four schools the conference added last year (Cincinnati, UCF and BYU).

“We are the deepest conference, I think, in America when it comes to football but arguably, we are the No. 1 conference in basketball and I’m excited about that,” Yormark said.

–Field Level Media