Big 12 Era

One might ask, “What is the Big 12?” Well, let’s find out.

What is

The Big 12 is one of the power conferences in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). So, what exactly is the Big 12? Well, back in 1994, two conferences joined forces. Half of the meetings were the Big Eight and the Southwest Conference. That means the eight Big 12 and 4 teams from the Southwest.

They formed the Big 12 Conference in 1994, and starting in 1996, the Big 12 was official and started to play. Those teams were

Big 8	Southwest
University of Colorado	Baylor University
Iowa State University	Texas Tech University
University o Kansas	Texas University
Kansas State University	Texas A&M University
University of Missouri
University of Nebraska
University of Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University

These were the founding members of the Big 12.

What happened to the founding members of the BIG 12?

Team	Left for
Colorado	Pac-12
Iowa	Big 10
Missouri	SEC
Nebraska	Big 10
Oklahoma	Still big 12 / Leaving 2024
Texas	Still big 12 / Leaving 2024

Over the years, some teams left, and some teams joined.

Current Big 12

As of now, the Big 12 is Big 14. Here are the teams

Team	Joined
Baylor	1996
Iowa State	1996
Kansas	1996
Kansas State	1996
Oklahoma	1996
Oklahoma State	1996
Texas	196
TCU	2012
Texas Tech	1996
West Virginia	2012

New Members

Team	Joined
BYU	2023
UCF	2023
Cincinnati	2023
Houston	2023

Future of the Big 12

Three will be two teams leaving in 2024

Texas
Oklahoma

They are both going to the SEC.

Some teams will be coming to the Big 12 in 2024, but that will be next year, and I will be covering this next year.

Thoughts

It will be an excellent year for the Big 12 as they are adding four great schools.

BYU
- Was an independent in Football for the last ten years.
UCF
- Part of the American Athletic Conference
Houston
- Part of the American Athletic Conference
Cincinnati
- Part of the American Athletic Conference

It is going to be a good year for the Big 12.

The first Big 12 games for the new teams are the following:

Date	Team	Playing
Sept 16	Houston	TCU
Sept 23	UCF	Kansas State
Sept 23	Cincinnati	Oklahoma
Sept 23	BYU	Kansas
Sept 23	Texas Tech	West Virginia

TCU and Houston had a game scheduled before Houston became a member. So, they will play some non-conference games on Sept 23, 2023. It is going to be a great year.