diff --git a/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriver.java b/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriver.java
index 2c7eba16c..8d1dfb138 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriver.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriver.java
@@ -165,8 +165,7 @@ public Connection connect(String url, Properties info) throws SQLException {
                 this.toString()));
         return connection;
       } else {
-        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
-            "Invalid URL provided, must start with \"jdbc:bigquery:\"");
+        return null;
       }
     } catch (IOException e) {
       LOG.warning("Getting a warning: " + e.getMessage());
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriverTest.java b/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriverTest.java
index 125de54df..6a33c6144 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriverTest.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryDriverTest.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 package com.google.cloud.bigquery.jdbc;
 
 import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;
-import static org.junit.Assert.assertThrows;
 
 import java.sql.Connection;
 import java.sql.DriverPropertyInfo;
@@ -36,8 +35,8 @@ public void setUp() {
   }
 
   @Test
-  public void testInvalidURLDoesNotConnect() {
-    assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> bigQueryDriver.connect("badURL.com", null));
+  public void testInvalidURLReturnsNull() throws SQLException {
+    assertThat(bigQueryDriver.connect("badURL.com", null)).isNull();
   }
 
   @Test