Big 12 Conference Wiki (2024)

FAQs

Who are the new teams in the Big 12 Conference? ›

The brand anthem unifies the conference and showcases the expanded regional, athletic and cultural presence of Big 12. This is the first time that all 16 institutions within the conference have been celebrated together through the campaign including new members — Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado.

The Big 12 will have 16 teams in 2024 with incoming schools Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah joining the conference from the Pac-12 and Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the SEC. BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF joined the conference in 2023.

The Big 12 Conference is a conference of 16 universities which participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision football.

All eight members of the former Big Eight Conference joined with half the members of the former Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech) to form the conference, with play beginning in 1996.

Four teams joined the Big 12 ahead of the 2024-25 sports calendar: Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, which joined the conference after the Pac-12 essentially disbanded.

The Big 12 announces that the Conference has agreed in principle to terms with the University of Oklahoma and The University of Texas at Austin to leave the Conference following the 2023-24 athletic year, one year earlier than originally announced, subject to final approval from the OU and UT governing Boards.

As for Oklahoma and Texas, they originally planned to join the SEC in 2025, but ultimately reached a financial deal with the Big 12 for an early exit. And they leave with a whole lot of hardware.

With the additions of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Oregon, University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Washington into the conference, 2024 will be the first season with 18 teams and no divisional format.

That's why the Big 12 expanding to a 17th team perhaps as soon as 2026 remains a contentious subject to some within the league. Football has and will continue to drive realignment. Talks have been going on for a while but have intensified lately; Big 12 presidents were briefed on UConn on Monday.

The first Big 12 Conference was announced in 1994 with the remnants of the Southwest (SWC) and Big Eight conferences. 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.

When did Mizzou leave the Big 12? ›

Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC ahead of the 2012 season. Missouri was a founding member of the Big 12 Conference. Uncertainty in the Big 12 amid the launch of Texas' Longhorn Network caused frustration.

BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the Big 12 Conference for all sports except men's volleyball which is a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

AAC/Pac-12 Potential Moves

While the American recently lost UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston to the Big 12, the teams that joined the AAC last year were UTSA, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and Charlotte. The AAC presidents also voted to add Army as a football-only member beginning this upcoming season.

"We are thrilled to welcome Arizona, Arizona State and Utah to the Big 12," commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement, via ESPN.

Unlike previous years, the Big Ten will be home to 18 teams when the season officially kicks off: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, defending National Champion Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Washington, and Wisconsin.