Big 12 Conference Wiki (2024)

FAQs

When did Texas join the Big 12? ›

Quarterback Quinn Ewers holds up the 2023 Football Big 12 Championship trophy during the postgame celebration after the Longhorns won the game against Oklahoma State on Dec. 1, 2023. Since 1996, the University of Texas has called the Big 12 Conference its home for everything and all things related to athletics.

Missouri leaves

By rushing the addition of the Aggies, the SEC had created a two division, 13 team conference for 2012. They needed an acceptable 14th team immediately to ease the scheduling issues created by the Aggies. While the Big 12 had strong candidates, the conference was still unstable.

2, 2024, the Conference is composed of 16 universities spanning 10 states and four time zones. The Big 12 members include Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, Utah and West Virginia.

The Big 12 is one of the Power Five conferences, the five highest-earning and most historically successful FBS football conferences. Power Five conferences are guaranteed at least one bid to a New Year's Six bowl game and have been granted exemptions from certain NCAA rules.

Texas and Oklahoma not only preferred to avoid playing the new Big 12 members, they wanted to join the SEC for Year 1 of its new TV deal with ESPN. The Big 12 eyed the substantial exit fee to supplement the new six-year media rights deal it negotiated with Fox and ESPN in October 2022.

In the early 2010s, then-A&M president R. Bowen Loftin was, according to Wilson, "uncomfortable with the lack of stability in the Big 12." Loftin recalled in 2021 that he had felt discomfort with the conference since attending his first meeting of the conference board shortly after becoming president in 2009.

Any team that moves ought to understand they're moving to a higher level of competition.” Nebraska, he said, does not regret its move and wasn't concerned about tougher competition when making its decision.

Colorado was one of several Big 12 members that left the conference in the early 2010s amid a turbulent period of conference realignment and destabilization. It was heavily rumored at the time that Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M – the center of the conference's power structure – were going to leave the Big 12.

When the University of Nebraska-Lincoln joined the Big Ten Conference on June 12, 2012, the narrative was that the University left the Big 12 because of football. Without a doubt, athletic motivations played a major role in the University's decision to join the Big Ten.

BYU showed an enrollment of 31,642 and Cincinnati had 28,968 on its main campus to rank sixth among the 14 schools. TCU, with the smallest enrollment at 10,222, made the College Football Playoff national championship game last season.

Who will be in Big 12 in 2024? ›

The 2024 season will mark the debut of Arizona, Arizona State and Utah as Big 12 Conference members, and the return of Colorado to the league.

The new 'four corner' schools — Utah, Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado — will bring much more excitement in their debut seasons for the Big 12 this year.

In 1996, the four teams joined the Big 8 teams to create the Big 12, leaving UH, Rice University, TCU and SMU behind. “It is common knowledge that Baylor made it into the Big 12 because of Ann Richards and Bob Bullock,” said State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston.

The league is looking to drop the “Big” from its name but retain the “12,” with the corporate sponsor name replacing “Big,” according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger.

The conference expanded in 1996 when four Texas universities (Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M University) left the Southwest Conference and joined the Big 8. As the Big 12, it was split into two six-team divisions, one of which consisted of the two Oklahoma and four Texas schools.

The school was a founding member of the Southwest Conference and was a member of the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA (CUSA), and the Mountain West Conference before joining the Big 12.

1994-96: Big 12 Conference forms from SWC and Big Eight

The original members were Big Eight's Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State, along with SWC's Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.