Joining Big 12 means long to-do list

For the past decade, the University of Houston spent millions on athletics, a drastic makeover of facilities and an increase in coaching salaries, to look appealing for the next round of conference realignment.

Then UH waited.

And spent more money.

Then the Big 12 backed out of a possible expansion in 2016.

The wait continued.

From Conference USA to a short-lived transition in the Big East to the last 10 years in the American Athletic Conference, UH has spent more than a quarter-century on the outside of major college athletics.

What did UH do? Spent more money, of course. In every sense, the Cougars acted like a Power Five program.

“Fake it until you make it,” Chris Pezman, UH’s vice president for athletics, said with a laugh during a recent interview in a second-floor conference room at the school’s athletic center.

That day is almost here. Friday marked exactly one year until UH officially joins the Big 12 on July 1, 2023.

“It’s finally here,” Pezman said.

Like a big wedding that needs to be planned, there is plenty to do in the next 12 months as the Cougars prepare to reunite with onetime rivals Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and, for now, the University of Texas.

“When I say it’s everything, it’s everything,” Pezman said of the long to-do list. “We’re touching every aspect, from what we look like, to what we feel like to what we sound like.”

Last month, UH announced “Houston Rise,” the largest athletic fundraising campaign in its history, which aims to raise $150 million to pay for construction and facility upgrades. There are nonconference schedules to figure out. A rebranding effort will slowly begin in the fall to include the Big 12 logo. A push is being made to increase season tickets, particularly with football. There are ongoing negotiations with vendors and sponsors.

Much of the responsibility falls on Pezman, a former football team captain who is in his fifth year as the school’s top athletic official.

“Trust me — I feel it every day, every night, every moment,” he said.

This is a moment for which UH has waited a long, long time, part of “a vision,” as described by school president Renu Khator, to one day join a Power Five conference.

“We’ve been planning for at least the last 10 years, making investments in athletics, and knowing where and how we need to be competitive nationally,” Khator said.

The timing is perfect. Under coach Kelvin Sampson, the men’s basketball program is coming off Final Four and Elite Eight appearances and is a legitimate national title contender entering the upcoming season. Football had its best season under coach Dana Holgorsen, going 12-2 and reaching the AAC championship game, and is among the early picks to play in a New Year’s Six bowl.

“The timing is great,” Khator said. “We are enjoying such great success with basketball, and football isn’t that far behind. People expect more from us. We are so happy to see it come to this point. This isn’t a one-day thing or a one-year thing.”

In some regards it has been a 28-year process, which began with the breakup of the Southwest Conference in 1994 and delivered a crippling blow still felt as the school has missed out on an estimated $500 million in revenue that comes with being in the Power Five.

In the past decade, UH has spent more than $250 million on construction and renovation projects. Those projects include TDECU Stadium ($126 million), Fertitta Center ($60 million), Guy V. Lewis Development Facility ($25 million) and a football indoor practice facility ($20 million). The centerpiece of the “Houston Rise” campaign will be a $75 million football operations building that is planned to break ground in the fall.

UH has also paid its coaches like a Power Five school, with Holgorsen scheduled to make $4.2 million this season and Sampson scheduled to make $3.3 million. Both coaches had clauses in their contracts that called for a renegotiation and raise if the school ever accepted an invitation into a Power Five league.

To catch up in the facilities arms race, the athletic department for several years has been heavily subsidized by the university, receiving $41 million in direct institutional support for the 2020-21 fiscal year, according to the data tracking website Sportico. With increased revenue — UH received $8.5 million in revenue distribution from the AAC in 2020-21and can likely expect upward of $20 million or more in the Big 12 — Pezman said the plan is for the athletic department to eventually “stand on its own two feet.” The goal, Pezman said, is for the school to increase its annual operating budget (currently $75 million) to $100 million within the next three to five years.

The overall transformation of the athletic department has been noticeable for Pezman, a former team captain on the football team in the late 1980s who returned for two years as director of football operations and has followed, whether up-close or from a distance, the school’s move from the SWC to the American Athletic Conference.

In 2016, UH was among several schools that made presentations as part of expansion talks. The school’s presentation was called “Remember the Name,” and while the Big 12 opted against adding any schools, the title seemed fitting years later.

College athletics underwent a seismic change last summer with the bombshell announcement that Texas and Oklahoma, the Big 12’s flagship schools, would depart for the Southeastern Conference. That kick-started another round of conference realignment that led to the Big 12 unanimously voting last September to add UH, Cincinnati, Central Florida and BYU.

UH can finally pause to enjoy the moment.

“We’re finally here,” Pezman said. “We’re sitting here and you kind of get to the point we checked a lot of boxes. When do you say we’ve made it and start puffing your chest? I’ve always been let your actions speak on the field or the court. But you start looking around and going into the fall we’re a consensus top-five in basketball and a consensus top-20 in football. We got into the Big 12. If you are going to brag, when do you do it? If you don’t do it now, when?

“You don’t want to jinx it. We’re getting over (having to) sleep with one eye open waiting for it to fall apart. We’ve been there. It’s like, what’s coming around the corner?”

When it comes to college athletics, few know, especially after Thursday’s news that Southern California and UCLA will depart the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, which joins the SEC in what looks like the start of the superconference era.

As UH embarks on its fundraising campaign, Sampson said the school should not just accept being a member of the Big 12.

“I don’t want to be the Little Engine That Could,” he said. “I don’t want that moniker put on us, that here’s all these Big 12 schools and here comes Houston. I want to stand shoulder-toshoulder with these people. I don’t want to start games off by thanking them for letting us be in your league. We’re in this league. I expect to compete in this league.”

Almost three decades and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the clock is ticking.

Joining the Big 12 is one year away.

Mark Mulligan/Staff file photo Much of the responsibility for the University of Houston’s massive athletic fundraising campaign falls on athletic director Chris Pezman, who was a captain on the football team in the late 1980s.