Cougars reach deal to leave AAC for the Big 12 in 2023
Three decades removed from a setback that jangled nerves and stirred ambitions among generations of University of Houston sports fans, the Cougars’ restoration is at hand: Beginning in the fall of 2023, they will compete as members of the Big 12.
UH said Friday it had reached a financial settlement with the American Athletic Conference, the Cougars’ home since 2013, to join the Big 12 on July 1, 2023. Big 12-bound Cincinnati and Central Florida announced similar agreements with the AAC.
After two years of limited financial partnerships, the schools will receive a full share of conference revenue for the 2025-26 school year, providing additional millions of dollars to a UH program that long has depended on help from the university’s general fund to make ends meet.
“This is a very exciting day,” university chancellor Rena Khator said. “We have been planning for this, envisioning it, thinking about it for some time. It’s good for Houston. It’s a great matter of pride for our alumni and a wonderful opportunity for our student athletes.”
The clock is now ticking for a program and a fan base that was cast aside from their Southwest Conference brethren when the league splintered in the mid-1990s, leaving UH to play in Conference USA and later the American while thirsting for a chance to compete on the same playing fields as Texas, Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech.
Past slights now will give way to renewed rivalries and a clean slate for a UH program that has spent more than $225 million on facilities in the past decade, with more on the way.
“This helps define our future,” Pezman said. “As we prepare for our transition into the Big 12 in the fall of 2023, to say the least our coaches and our staff and our student-athletes are incredibly excited about this prospect.
UH, UCF, Cincinnati and BYU, which now competes as an independent, were accepted as Big 12 members last fall after Texas and Oklahoma announced they would move to the Southeastern Conference no later than 2025.
The three AAC schools initially planned to move to
the Big 12 in 2024 but were able to negotiate an early exit with the conference, which significantly reduced its initial proposal of a $35 million buyout for each school. BYU already had announced plans to join in 2023.
Pezman said UH’S buyout will be $18 million, with a $10 million departure fee paid out over the next three years and the rest paid out over 12 years beginning in 2025.
“Getting this done for 2023 as opposed to waiting until ’24 was really important, because it started that clock financially for us,” Pezman said. “We start running to get closer to that full share (of Big 12 revenue), and that’s very significant for our financial stability and health.”
Based on this year’s Big 12 payout of $42.6 million per school, UH could receive at least $16 million for the 2023-24 school year and a projected $24 million in Year 2. According to tax documents, UH received $8.52 million from the AAC in fiscal 2020-21.
The impending departure of UH, UCF and Cincinnati will deprive the American of three of its most successful programs, but it also likely will speed up plans for the league to absorb six new members — UTSA, Rice, North Texas, UAB, Charlotte and Florida Atlantic.
UTSA and Charlotte moved quickly Friday, announcing agreements to move the AAC on July 1, 2023.
AAC commissioner Mike Arresco did not address the future members in a statement Friday but thanked the three outgoing members for their contributions to the league and for contributing to a “sensible resolution” to their exit.
“All three institutions enjoyed tremendous success under the American Athletic Conference banner, and all three were instrumental in taking the conference to great heights, both athletically and academically,” Aresco said. “We wish them the best and look forward to having them compete in our conference in 2022-23.”
“We had a really good time with (the AAC),” Khator said. “We played competitive games that gave us an opportunity to show off our talent and to prove that we were nationally competitive … but now we are ready for big horizons to play on the big platform.”
Pezman and Khator said the financial heft of the Big 12, even after the departure of Oklahoma and Texas, will help UH athletics become more financially selfsufficient. In 2019, for example, the UH athletic department received almost two-thirds of its financial support from student fees and general fund contributions.
Even though the $18 million exit fee will be factored into the athletic budget, Pezman said Big 12 membership “helps stabilize our financial future and put us in a position to sustainability for the university.”
Khator said UH faculty and staff “understand the interplay between academics and athletics” and that UH’S on-field success has contributed to increased interest in student applications to UH. The school this year received 38,286 applications for a freshman class that last year totaled just 5,600.
“We are playing at a very different level today than what we were playing 10 years ago,” she said.
While finances play a big role in UH’S eagerness to join the Big 12, it’s an
emotional landmark as well. After being one of four Southwest Conference teams left out of the Big 12 in 1996, UH twice sought entry into the league and twice was denied.
2023, then, will represent a restoration of sorts for the Cougars, Pezman said.
“This is a new day,” he said. “It’s about our future and where we’re going and not where we’ve been. You tip the cap and remember what we’ve experienced in our history, and you’ll always have a chip in your shoulder. But this is about today and tomorrow and where we’re going.”
Dana Holgorsen’s football team will get an early look at its Big 12 opposition with games this fall at Texas Tech and against Kansas at TDECU Stadium. Kelvin Sampson’s basketball team, coming off Final Four and Elite Eight showings in the past two years, hasn’t announced its 202223 schedule.
In the wake of Friday’s news, perhaps the biggest attraction for UH fans will be a brief renewal of the Cougars’ rivalry with Texas and one or two games against Oklahoma. UH has not played the Longhorns in football since 2002 and last played the Sooners in 2019.
Historians will note that when UH joined the Southwest Conference football ranks in 1976 after years as an independent, the Cougars beat Texas 30-0 en route to their first of three conference titles in their first four SWC seasons.
“No pressure there, right?” Pezman said. “We came in, and we were hot.”
And now, a new challenge awaits.