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BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF accepted invitations to join the Big 12 on Friday after the conference voted to expand its membership to the league for the first time since 2012. As expected, the Big 12 has stamped invitations. membership, extending them to the four schools which quickly accepted the offers.
Sending out an invitation required a qualified majority of the other eight Big 12 athletic directors. However, the Big 12 notes that the vote to add these new members was unanimous.
BYU and Houston accepted their invitations hours after receiving them, and at the end of the day, all four universities announced they would join the Big 12.
BYU became the first school to accept its invitation, announcing just 12 minutes after the Big 12 publicly announced the invitations.
“College athletics is changing,” said BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe. “We have seen a rapid increase in the rate of change. We see it with the conference realignment, we’ve seen it with the transfer portal, governance, and we’ve certainly seen it with NIL. We are ready at BYU. Today’s news regarding the Big 12 membership is huge, but it is no resting place for us. This is just a fresh start with opportunities for bigger and better things to come for BYU Athletics. “
Houston followed as the second school to officially announce their entry into the Big 12. The Cougars have been fighting for an invite almost from the time they were kicked out of the Big 12 when it formed in 1996.
“Joining the Big 12 Conference is a historic milestone in our institutional journey and signifies the tremendous academic and athletic growth and success achieved over the past decade,” said Houston President Renu Khator. “Our expectations for our university remain high, our aspirations continue to be bold and we seize this new opportunity to compete at the highest level in everything we do.”
Cincinnati announced its acceptance of a Big 12 membership in an open letter from athletic director John Cunningham on Friday afternoon.
“The impact of the move to the Big 12 conference will extend beyond the walls of the Lindner Center and into classrooms and research labs on campus, aligning with our university’s drive for excellence in everything we do, ”Cunningham wrote. “While there are financial benefits to our move from the conference, including a significantly improved position to secure a long-term media rights deal consistent with our investment in athletics, the access that the Big Equally important is 12 Conference will provide our teams. Our goal is to win national championships, and by joining the Big 12, all of our teams will have more opportunities to do so. We will also see a higher level of recruiting , improving our national brand and increasing awareness of our institution around the world. “
UCF tweeted a graphic of a black and gold Large logo 12 to confirm admission to the Big 12. UCF held an emergency UCF board meeting to formally accept.
This cycle of Big 12 expansion follows the departure of Texas and Oklahoma from the conference to join the SEC as member institutions. The Longhorns and Sooners will either have to wait until the Big 12 rights grant expires after the 2024-25 school year or pay fines of up to $ 80 million.
Cincinnati, Houston and UCF will be leaving the American Athletic Conference and will have to pay an exit fee of $ 10 million. AAC rules state that 27 months notice is required to leave the conference. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby noted that all three AAC schools will enter “no later than” July 2024. However, programs will likely pay slightly higher exit fees to exit before the 2023 season. UConn , for example, paid $ 17 million to withdraw from his AAC contract earlier.
BYU, as an independent footballer, could upgrade to the Big 12 whenever it wants; However, the Cougars have said they will wait until 2023 and join the rest of their sports. As an independent, BYU has a number of existing football programming contracts to resolve as the program schedules 12 games each year. BYU will also have to pay a buyout to exit the West Coast Conference for all sports other than football.
If all four teams join the Big 12 in 2023, that group would straddle Oklahoma and Texas for their final two years in the league. This could give the Big 12, temporarily, a 14-team league unless the Longhorns and Sooners are offered an exit sooner or buy their exit from their contract.
Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt recently claimed that this may just be the first round of realignment as part of a larger Big 12 expansion.
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