New Big 12 Conference: Meet the members of the restructured league
The Big 12 presidents voted to add four new members, including BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF in the latest wave of conference realignment. With the losses of Texas and Oklahoma, the league will have a new look in the future.
Although the vote is completed, UCF likely will continue to play in the American Athletic Conference for at least one more season. If things move forward as planned, the four teams will join the league by 2023 or, at the very latest, 2024, Sports Illustrated reported.
BAYLOR
Location: Waco, Texas
Distance to Orlando: 1,144 miles
Enrollment: 13,737
TV market: No. 94 in U.S.
Joined the Big 12: 1996
Big 12 football championships: 2013-14
Coach: Dave Aranda
Buzz: UCF fans should be familiar with the Bears, who Knights faced in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl. Baylor struggled in the early days after joining the Big 12 before eventually finding success on the gridiron and the hardwood. The women’s basketball program claimed multiple national championships in 2005, 2012 and 2019. But scandals have tarnished the reputation of the school, including NCAA violations committed by the men’s basketball program in the early 2000s and a sexual assault case against the football program that resulted in the firing of coach Art Briles, AD Ian McCaw and school president Kenneth Starr.
BYU
Location: Provo, Utah
Distance to Orlando: 2,323 miles
Enrollment: 28,288
TV market: No. 33
Coach: Kalani Sitake
Buzz: BYU has a long-standing football tradition and a massive fan base that makes it an attractive option for the Big 12. The Cougars were a football power as members of the Western Athletic and Mountain West conferences, including winning a national championship in 1984. The school also produced a Heisman Trophy winner in Ty Detmer in 1990. The school also is smack dab in the middle of one of the top television markets in Salt Lake City.
CINCINNATI
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Distance to Orlando: 912 miles
Enrollment: 23,577
TV market: No. 34
Coach: Luke Fickell
Buzz: Cincinnati is coming off a top 10 season, one in which the Bearcats earned the Group of Five’s spot in the New Year’s Day Access Bowl. The program has undergone a resurgence with back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2018-19. This year’s team also is ranked in the top 10 and could once again be a factor in the College Football Playoff race. The school sits in another attractive television market, making it an easy sell if you’re looking to bring more eyes to a conference.
HOUSTON
Location: Houston, Texas
Distance to Orlando: 965 miles
Enrollment: 28,038
TV market: No. 10
Coach: Dana Holgorsen
Buzz: Holgorsen is no stranger to the Big 12. The 50-year-old coached at West Virginia when the Mountaineers joined in 2012 before leaving to take the Houston job in 2019. The Cougars have won multiple conference championships in the Southwest Conference, Conference USA and American Athletic Conference (2015). But football aside, perhaps the biggest draw for the Big 12 is Houston’s top 10 television market.
IOWA STATE
Location: Ames, Iowa
Distance to Orlando: 1,370 miles
Enrollment: 26,627
TV market: No. 71
Joined the Big 12: 1996
Big 12 football championships: None
Coach: Matt Campbell
Buzz: Iowa State was a founding member of the conference when it was the Big 6, then the Big 7, then the Big 8 and finally the Big 12. The Cyclones, however, didn’t find much success on the football field until the Johnny Majors and Earle Bruce eras (1968-78) and it wasn’t until Dan McCarney (1995) that the program received much national attention. Campbell has continued that trend with Iowa State receiving its first top 10 postseason rankings in school history last season.
KANSAS
Location: Lawrence, Kansas
Distance to Orlando: 1,282
Enrollment: 17,157
TV market: No. 31 (Kansas City)
Joined the Big 12: 1996
Big 12 football championships: None (4 as member of Big Eight)
Coach: Lance Leipold
Buzz: The Jayhawks are another founding member of the conference but success on the gridiron has been fleeting as of late. No Football Bowl Subdivision program has a worse record over the past decade than Kansas, which is 18-99 (15%) during that stretch. The saving grace for fans has been a men’s basketball program that has been a national powerhouse over the last three decades including winning three national championships (1952, 1988, 2008).
KANSAS STATE
Location: Manhattan, Kansas
Distance to Orlando: 1,361 miles
Enrollment: 15,475
TV market: No. 138 (Topeka)
Joined the Big 12: 1996
Big 12 football championships: 2003, 2012 (1 as member of Big Eight)
Coach: Chris Klieman (13-11)
Buzz: Another founding member, Kansas State found its heyday of college football when Bill Snyder arrived in 1993. The Wildcats won 215 games during the 27 years that Snyder was in charge of the program, including their two Big 12 championships. The men’s basketball program has won 16 conference championships since the Big 6 days, including two in 2013 and 2019 while the women’s track and field program won Big 12 titles in 2017-18.
OKLAHOMA STATE
Location: Stillwater, Oklahoma
Distance to Orlando: 1,263 miles
Enrollment: 17,238
TV market: No. 45 (Oklahoma City)
Joined the Big 12: 1996
Big 12 football championships: 2011 (1 as member of Big Eight)
National championship: 1945
Coach: Mike Gundy
Buzz: Oklahoma State joined as a member of the Big 8 in 1960 but it wasn’t until the arrival of Jim Stanley and then Jimmy Johnson that the program found a mainstay of success in football. Outside of Oklahoma, Texas and TCU (which joined the Big 12 in 2012), no program has won more games during the past two decades than the Cowboys (165-88), particularly under Mike Gundy. Not to mention, the program produced Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders (1988).
TCU
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Distance to Orlando: 1,157 miles
Enrollment: 9,207
TV market: No. 5 (Dallas/Fort Worth)
Joined the Big 12: 2012
Big 12 football championships: 2014
National championships: 1935, 1938
Coach: Gary Patterson
Buzz: TCU joined the Big 12 during the last major round of conference realignment. The Horned Frogs had already established themselves as a football power as members of the Southwest Conference, Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Mountain West Conference, including appearances in the Fiesta Bowl (2009) and Rose Bowl (2010). It was the 2014 season that TCU finished with its second top-three finish under Patterson, earning a share of the Big 12 title.
TEXAS TECH
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Distance to Orlando: 1,484 miles
Enrollment: 28,037
TV market: No. 143 (Lubbock)
Joined the Big 12: 1996
Big 12 football championships: None
Coach: Matt Wells
Buzz: When Texas Tech joined, it was an already established football program that had won multiple conference titles in the Border and Southwest conferences. The program grew under the guidance of Spike Dykes and eventually Mike Leach, whose Air Raid offense made the Red Raiders one of the top offensive teams in the country. The men’s basketball program underwent a resurgence under Chris Beard, who took Texas Tech to back-to-back Elite Eight appearances in 2018-19 and a runner-up appearance in the title game in 2019.
UCF
Location: Orlando
Enrollment: 71,948
TV market: No. 19 (Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne)
Coach: Gus Malzahn
Buzz: UCF has won 75% of its games during the last five years, including a 25-game winning streak between 2017-18. Along the way, the Knights captured back-to-back American Athletic Conference titles and consecutive appearances in the New Year’s Six bowls, including a win over Auburn in the 2018 Peach Bowl. Off the field, UCF provides the Big 12 with another large television market as well as a massive student population. Also having a school in a recruiting-rich state like Florida would be a huge boon for the conference.
WEST VIRGINIA
Location: Morgantown, West Virginia
Distance to Orlando: 897 miles
Enrollment: 19,366
TV market: No. 23 (Pittsburgh)
Joined the Big 12: 2012
Big 12 football championships: None
Coach: Neal Brown
Buzz: After a successful run in the Big East, West Virginia made the jump. It didn’t take long for the Mountaineers to make their presence known, with the program finishing tied for second in conference rankings in 2016. The men’s basketball program has had three NCAA Tournament appearances since 2012 and has finished ranked in the top 25 six of the last seven seasons while the women’s program has won a conference championship (2013) and made multiple postseason appearances.
Bowl tie-ins (as of 2021-22 season): 1. Sugar Bowl (champion or highest-ranked team not in College Football Playoff), 2. Alamo Bowl, 3. Cheez-It Bowl, 4. Texas Bowl, 5. Liberty Bowl, 6. Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Other possible games include Armed Forces Bowl and First Responders Bowl.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osmattmurschel.
