Official: BYU Accepts Big 12 Invite Along with UCF, Houston, Cincinnati

It’s actually happening.

After years of being on the Big 12’s doorstep, the Big 12 Conference announced Friday morning that they’ve invited BYU, Houston, UCF and Cincinnati to the conference.

BYU officially accepted the invite.

Video Conferences with each school begin at 11am CT — BYU’s will be at 11:30 CT.

BYU’s official release stated that they will join the Big 12 in all sports starting in 2023. The three AAC schools are scheduled to join a year later but could at the same time in 2023. My guess is that they will work out their buy out with the ACC and join in 2023 along with BYU.

“The Cougars will participate in every sport sponsored by the Big 12 except equestrian, rowing and wrestling. The Big 12 sponsors every sport the Cougars compete in, except men’s volleyball. All sports will begin Big 12 schedules in the 2023-24 athletic season, except for men’s volleyball, which will continue to compete in the MPSF.”

As it stands now, BYU will be in the Big 12 with Texas and OU for 2 seasons before they leave to the SEC.

The move should greatly increase BYU’s revenue and allows BYU to join a P5 conference. Many have speculated what the future of the Big 12 will look like, and rightfully so, without Texas and Oklahoma, but there will be a wide margin between the Big 12 and other conferences behind that I believe the Big 12 will remain a power conference. Even without OU and Texas, the new Big 12 schools have been about on par with the Pac 12 for several years.

The 12 schools that will form the Big 12 have been on par with the Pac 12 for several years, and basketball has been a top two league, and often number one, for over a decade now. All sports should receive a recruiting boost and BYU will be able to pay coaches more with the extra cash coming in from TV, bowls, and other tie ins.

Overall, a historic day for BYU that is long overdue.