The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The four schools that were extended invitations Friday to join the Big 12 Conference:
BYU Cougars
■ Location: Provo, Utah
■ Enrollment: 33,181
■ Football: BYU is the last school from outside what are now the Power Five conferences to win a football national title. The Cougars were 13-0 in 1984 when playing in the WAC, finishing as the nation’s only undefeated team after starting that season unranked. Quarterback Ty Detmer is the school’s only Heisman Trophy winner, after throwing or 5,188 yards and 41 touchdowns in 1990. BYU has played as a football independent since 2011 after 12 seasons in the Mountain West. The Cougars were 11-1 last year while playing in the pandemicaltered season and didn’t play any Power Five opponents.
■ Men’s basketball: The Cougars, who play basketball in the West Coast Conference, have advanced past the second round of the NCAA Tournament once in their past 20 appearances.
UCF Knights
■ Location: Orlando, Florida. ■ Enrollment: 72,000
■ Football: The Knights were the selfproclaimed national champs in 2017 following a 13-0 season capped with a Peach Bowl win over Auburn. Coach Scott Frost then left for Nebraska, his alma mater. They were sixth in the final AP poll. They started 12-0 in 2018 under Josh Heupel
before losing to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl. The three-time AAC champions are the only Group of Five team with multiple New Year’s Six game victories. They have six 10-win seasons since 2010. That included 12-1 in 2013 under former Georgia Tech coach George O’leary. Gus Malzahn is his first season at UCF after the previous eight seasons as head coach at Auburn.
■ Men’s basketball: UCF has been to only five NCAA Tournaments.
Cincinnati Bearcats
■ Location: Cincinnati
■ Enrollment: 46,000
■ Football: Defending AAC champion and No. 7 Cincinnati is 32-6 over the past three seasons. The Bearcats this season were the first non-power Five team in the preseason top 10 since 2012. They made their first New Year’s Six game last season, going 9-0 before a 24-21 loss in the Peach Bowl when Georgia got a 53-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining. Fifthyear coach Luke Fickell, signed until 2026, previously spent 15 years on the staff at Ohio State.
■ Men’s basketball: The Bearcats have had 13 consecutive winning seasons and made nine consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2011-19. They were 31-5 and finished sixth in the final Top 25 poll of 2017-18, when they lost 75-73 to Nevada in a second-round tourney game.
Houston Cougars
■ Location: Houston
■ Enrollment: 47,000
■ Football: Andre Ware was the 1989 Heisman Trophy winner, throwing for 4,699 yards and 46 TDS in a season that included a 95-21 win over SMU and five other games scoring at least 55 points. When Ware turned pro, David Klingler followed with 5,140 yards and 54 TDS in 1990. More recently, Houston had a pair of 13-1 seasons in the past decade.
■ Men’s basketball: The Cougars made the NCAA Final Four last season, their first since the Phi Slama Jama era with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.