Big 12 expansion FAQ: Timeline, what new teams add, Texas-Oklahoma impact and more

The Big 12 is ready to expand. In response to Texas and Oklahoma heading off to the SEC (possibly not until 2025), the Big 12 presidents and chancellors voted Friday to accept four teams into the conference: Cincinnati, Houston and UCF from the American Athletic Conference, and independent BYU.

The move comes less than two months after Big 12 co-founders Oklahoma and Texas announced they would join the SEC by July 1, 2025, leaving the future of the remaining eight schools in the Big 12 in a precarious position.

Here is a look at where things stand, when those teams could join their new league and what they would add to a conference in desperate need of fortification.

What is the most realistic timeline for Big 12 expansion?

AAC bylaws, which govern Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, require schools to give a 27-month notice before they leave and pay a $10 million buyout fee. In that scenario, joining by the 2023 season would be a long shot. But an earlier exit and a higher buyout is always a possibility, which could move the timeline up. With the Big 12 presidents and chancellors officially voting the three schools in, the clock should start ticking and the lawyers would start working.

What is next for the AAC?

Commissioner Mike Aresco has worked tirelessly to position the AAC as the premier Group of 5 conference, or part of the "Power 6," as he often calls it. Aresco still thinks the AAC is a rung above the other leagues, competitively and financially. But the three departures will significantly weaken the league, on the field and in future financial payouts from its media rights agreement. The question is, how much? If the AAC maintains strong payouts and a level of prestige, it should be able to add several solid members. But the Mountain West still has a good financial model, and the Sun Belt has significantly elevated its profile on the field in recent years. Can the AAC simply pick off whatever teams it wants to fill the gaps, or will it have a harder time maintaining its position in the Group of 5 hierarchy?

What does each potential team add to the Big 12?

BYU: Of all the possible options the Big 12 could have added, BYU was the most obvious. It has a proud history and recent success in football, a national fan base and minimal red tape to cut through as an independent. It fits geographically, and the religious component, which is widely understood to be a road block for Pac-12 membership, isn't an issue in a conference with Baylor and TCU.

Unlike Notre Dame, BYU hasn't been considered a Power 5-caliber opponent in the playoff era, but it has been scheduling aggressively with the hope to change that before the Big 12 opportunity came along. Though it has been thoroughly dominated by in-state rival Utah for the past decade, a bump in conference prestige should inject some competitiveness back into the Holy War. -- Kyle Bonagura

Cincinnati: Other than BYU, Cincinnati is the most established program the Big 12 can add in this round of realignment. Cincinnati has been in a power conference before (RIP Big East) and made trips to the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl in 2008 and 2009. The Bearcats own 14 conference titles and have eight AP Top 25 finishes since 2007, including No. 8 finishes in 2009 and 2020.

The school has put money into football, including an $86 million renovation of Nippert Stadium, and pays coach Luke Fickell $3.4 million annually. Founded in 1819, Cincinnati is an established research institution with more than 315,000 living alumni and more than 35,000 undergraduates. It gives the Big 12 a presence in the recruit-rich state of Ohio. In 2019, Cincinnati had the seventh-largest attendance increase in the FBS (5,466). UC also would provide a regional rival to West Virginia, another former Big East program that is currently a geographical outlier in the Big 12. -- Rittenberg

Houston: What Houston brings to the table: ambition and old grudges. Adding Houston to the Big 12 mix would bring a truckload of old Southwest Conference hostility to the schools that left it behind in the beginning -- and again a few years ago when the Big 12 opted not to expand. That just adds to the fun factor in games against old conference mates such as Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech, but especially against Texas if the Cougars can sneak in before the Longhorns sneak out. Houston wants so badly to stack up to the Horns that it even offered a home-and-home series to Texas to reduce the $2.5 million buyout that UT owed for hiring Tom Herman, according to former athletic director Hunter Yurachek (Texas passed).

But in recent years, fueled mostly by billionaire booster Tilman Fertitta, Houston has made it clear its wants into a Power 5 league, and it has spent accordingly. The Cougars built a new 40,000-seat, $125 million stadium, hired coach Dana Holgorsen away from West Virginia, debuted a $60 million renovation of their basketball arena -- now known as the Fertitta Center, thanks to $20 million from the namesake -- and built new football and basketball practice facilities. Even the president, Renu Khator, said, "The winning is defined at University of Houston as 10 and 2," the Houston Chronicle reported she told the faculty at her annual holiday party at her home. "We'll fire coaches at 8 and 4." -- Dave Wilson

UCF: What UCF brings to the table: The obvious is the way UCF has transformed itself from sleeping giant into national name over the past five years -- thanks to its 25-game football winning streak between 2017 and 2018 (and self-declared national championship in 2017). The university knows exactly what it has in football, the driver in expansion. UCF has a 64-page brand presentation that showcases what makes it so valuable -- from its enrollment to its location in Orlando, Florida, to its sold-out crowds to its television appeal. The Orlando media market, which includes Daytona Beach-Melbourne, ranks No. 17 in the country but is projected to be in the top 15 in the next two to three years.

UCF has had the ninth-most nationally televised games on major networks since 2018 -- more than any other Group of 5 team -- a nod to its success over the past five seasons. Beyond the Orlando demographic, Florida has the third-most television households in the country, and as UCF has grown as a brand and a university, there are sure to be more people tuning in outside the Central Florida area. Then there is the ability to fundraise. In 2020, UCF got $35.5 million in commitments -- more than four times what the school raised just four years earlier. -- Andrea Adelson

What does this mean for the Big 12's Power 5 autonomy status?

The Big 12's autonomy status likely was safe even if the league did not expand right away. The Division I board of directors, which adopted the autonomy structure for the top five conferences, is the only group with the authority to make changes to the designations. The College Football Playoff has no control over autonomy status. It can only be removed with a weighted majority vote (representatives from the current autonomy leagues have more votes than others), but the presidents would have to push for a change to the existing model, which sources say is unlikely. "The presidents are not going to kick somebody off the island," an industry source said. Of course, the NCAA could look very different in a couple of years and these designations may not mean what they do now, anyway.

Does this affect Texas' and Oklahoma's SEC timeline?

OU and Texas issued a joint statement in late July saying they intend to remain in the Big 12 through June 30, 2025, when the current Big 12 media rights deal expires, but it's possible the schools could attempt to exit sooner. Each university would have to pay a penalty of at least $75 million to $80 million to break that agreement. If the two schools honor their commitments until July 1, 2025, it's possible the Big 12 operates as a 14-team conference for a year, with the new members competing alongside the outgoing conference co-founders. It's also possible BYU joins the league before the AAC schools.

What does this mean for sports other than football?

The Big 12's planned addition of four programs will alter the landscape (again) in men's and women's college basketball. Read more about it here.