By: Nina Samone
According to recent reports, there will be some new additions in the Big 12 in 2023 – Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston are set to join in 2023 after leaving the American Athletic Conference.
American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco said in a statement Friday morning, “All three institutions enjoyed tremendous success under the America 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 2022-2023.”
BYU will also be joining the conference in 2023. According to The Athletics’ Nicole Auerbach, BYU as an FBS independent school will have to pay only 500,000 to leave the West Coast Conference.
That is compared to a whopping $18 million paid out over 14 years for Houston, Cincinnati and UCF to leave the AAC for the Big 12.
Despite the departures in the AAC, their future is bright as they are expected to add six schools from Conference USA. North Texas, Florida Atlantic, Rice, UAB, Charlotte and UTSA will finalize their decisions in July.
Sources:
Greenawalt, Tyler. June 10th, 2022. Yahoo! Sports. “Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to officially join Big 12 in 2023.” <https://sports.yahoo.com/cincinnati-houston-and-ucf-to-officially-join-big-12-in-2023-150929405.html>
Thompson, Cole. June 10th, 2022. FanNation. “Four New Schools Set to Officially Join Big 12 in 2023.” <https://www.si.com/college/texas/news/longhorns-big-12-college-football-expansion-byu-houston-ucf-cincinnati>
