Move to power conference was part of Hitt’s vision
In 2006, John Hitt used three characteristics to describe what he thought it took for a school to be considered a major university in the South: “Really good doctoral programs, a fair amount of research and playing big-time football.”
This season, the UCF Knights will be playing big-time football in the Big 12 Conference but Hitt won’t be around to watch.
Hitt, 82, died in February just five years after his retirement from serving as UCF’s president for almost 30 years.
Although he didn’t get to see his vision come to fruition, it’s what he always wanted.
“I thought there would be a movement to a major conference,” Hitt told the Sentinel in 2021, shortly after the Knights received an invitation to the Power Five league.
“The old saying we branded around so much was to go big or go home. We adapted over the years. If there weren’t a Big 12 we’d be trying to invent one.”
He was only half-joking.
The feeling of disappointment sunk in for Hitt when the Big East broke up in 2012, leaving UCF in the dust and in a non-Power Five league that would be called the American Athletic Conference.
He had to settle for less than what he wanted once again in 2016 when the Big 12 declined to expand beyond 10 schools.
When news broke that Oklahoma and Texas were departing for the SEC, it suddenly became necessary for the Big 12 to expand if it wanted to survive.
Despite being retired, Hitt still offered his help to UCF President Alexander Cartwright around the time the Big 12 was looking to expand two years ago.
Email records show Hitt sent Cartwright a Big 12 presentation that he used in 2016 when the conference was considering expansion five years earlier.
“Hope it is helpful,” Hitt wrote in the Aug. 4, 2021, email to Cartwright.
It’s unclear if Cartwright used any of the material but it was clear Hitt was still passionate about the possibility of the Knights joining the Big 12 and he would be willing to help even if he was sitting in his Wisconsin home more than 1,000 miles away.
Hitt’s wish came true and on Sept. 10, 2021 — just more than one month after he’d emailed Cartwright — UCF was invited to the Big 12.
The celebration would begin.
“It’s a further step in the overall recognition of UCF as a major power in football and
it takes most of the ceilings that you would imagine in trying to assess the likely progress of the program,” Hitt said at the time.
It seemed as though Hitt always knew UCF would end up at the summit of college athletics.
Joining a major conference and establishing itself as a premier university was always part of Hitt’s plan.
“A lot of people wish for good results, but the ones who get results are the ones who have a sound plan and work like heck to make that plan a reality,” Hitt said in
2006, one year before the Knights played in their on-campus football stadium that he supported strongly.
His plan did become a reality for the Knights, and while he won’t be around to see what comes next Hitt sure was proud of it.
“Once you got to the top floor, UCF would be on it.”