Big 12 Officially Extends Invitations To BYU, Houston, Cincinnati, and UCF After Texas and Oklahoma Exits

Four teams have officially been extended membership invitations to the Big 12 following the exits of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC

Matt Galatzan | Sep 10, 2021

The Big 12 is about to get bigger.

Following the exits of the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners to the SEC, the Big 12 conference was sent into panic mode, with no clear path for a future remaining in front of them.

Now, a solution has been found, with four officially being extended invitations to join the conference on Friday.

Those programs -- BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida -- are expected to unanimously accept those invitations and join the conference as soon as possible.

The Big 12 released a statement on the decisions to extend those invites, detailing their plans, which you can view below:

The Big 12 Conference Board of Directors this morning voted to extend membership invitations to Brigham Young University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Houston to join the Conference.

Today’s actions were in accordance with Big 12 Conference Bylaw 1.5.2.b.3 requiring an affirmative vote of a supermajority of Directors, and was approved unanimously by the eight continuing members.

As necessary, institutional Boards will be in session today to act on Big 12 Conference membership. Videoconference announcements with Big 12 Board of Directors Chairman and Texas Tech University President Lawrence Schovanec, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, and campus representatives are scheduled today at the following times:

Houston – 11:00 a.m. CT
BYU – 11:30 a.m. CT
UCF – 2:45 p.m. CT
Cincinnati – 3:30 p.m. CT

According to previous reports from Sports Illustrated, the plan would be for those teams to enter the Big 12 by the 2023 season, potentially matching them up to compete against Texas and Oklahoma, who are not scheduled to leave for the SEC until 2025.

That said, the wide standing belief is that the Longhorns and Sooners could be playing in the SEC by the 2022 season, providing they each pay their $80 million exit fees from their individual grant of rights deals.

BYU would be coming to the Big 12 after spending the last decade as an independent program with no conference affiliation, while Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF will be making their way from the American Athletic Conference, which kicked off its inaugural season in 2013.

So what's next?

All four programs must now officially accept the invitations, and give notice and pay exit penalties in order to join the Big 12, with those penalties still to be determined.

Either way, the Big 12 is about to get bigger.

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Published Sep 10, 2021

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.