Big 12 Announces Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to Join Big 12 in 2023

The Big 12 will look a lot different in 2023 as Cincinnati, Houston and UCF have reached an agreement with the American Athletic Conference to depart and join the Big 12 in the summer of 2023, which was announced by the AAC on Friday.

The three schools are now set to join BYU for the start of the 2023 fall athletic calendar.

"I would like to thank UCF President Alexander Cartwright, Cincinnati President Neville Pinto and Houston President Renu Khator – as well as Tulane President Michael Fitts, who is chair of our Board of Directors - for their efforts and leadership to arrive at a sensible resolution to the three schools' departure from the conference," said AAC commissioner Mike Aresco in a statement. "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. We wish them the best and look forward to having them compete in our conference in 2022-23."

This newest revelation is going to make the time OU and Texas are still in the Big 12 before they bolt for the SEC very interesting, especially when it comes to scheduling. With the new NCAA rule stating conferences no longer have to field a conference championship game based on divisions, the Pac-12 announced they’ll be matching up the two teams with the highest win percentage in conference play for the Pac-12 championship this year.

Which, according to the Pac-12, would’ve resulted in a different championship matchup in five of the past 11 years.

So, depending on what the Big 12 decides based on divisions or not, there’s also rivalry matchups and travel for each school for the conference to consider as there will be enough teams for two seven-team divisions until OU and Texas split for the SEC.

“It is very complicated because they are wanting to keep Oklahoma State vs. OU and OU-Texas, Kansas-Kansas State,” preached Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy. “There are some longstanding rivalries that they want to keep, but when you do that and then you say we have to do certain opponents matched up, so they don’t have to travel too far (ex: BYU playing West Virginia) then it is a complicated system to get a schedule. I don’t know how they would be able to do that.”

There’s certainly enough time in between now and when the four teams are set to join next summer, but I would imagine those discussions are already taking place.