Big 12 welcomes Cincy, three others

With Oklahoma and Texas on the way out, the Big 12 announced Sept. 10 it has invited BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston to join the Power Five conference and said it has not ruled out further expansion in the future.

The eight continuing members of the Big 12 unanimously approved applications from the four schools that sought membership after the league learned the Sooners and Longhorns will leave for the Southeastern

Conference no later than July 2025.

Formal approval of the invites was pending on some campuses, but the expansion is all but done.

In fact, BYU said all its sports will begin Big 12 schedules in the 2023-24 athletic season. BYU is an independent in football, but competes in the West Coast Conference for basketball and so-called Olympic sports like track and swimming.

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said current American Athletic Conference teams UCF, Cincinnati and

Houston will join no later than July 1, 2024, but said he “certainly wouldn’t foreclose” on the possibility of them coming in a year earlier with BYU.

The AAC requires members to give 27 months’ notice if they plan to leave the league, though there could be negotiations between the schools and that league to reduce that time.

AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said the league expected Houston, Cincinnati and UCF to “abide by the conference bylaws to ensure an amicable and orderly transition” as the league considers its options.

“Today’s news confirms what we have said all along regarding our status as a power conference,” Aresco said. “The irony that three of our schools are being asked to take the place of the two marquee schools which are leaving the Big 12 is not lost on us. Our conference was targeted for exceeding expectations in a system that wasn’t designed to accommodate our success.”

After identifying its primary expansion targets last week, the Big 12 moved quickly to make it happen.