PROVO, Utah, July 1, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A new era of BYU athletics got underway Saturday as the Cougars officially joined the Big 12 Conference.
Nearly 22 months after the Cougars were invited to join the Big 12 for the 2023-24 season, BYU fans and students counted down to the big day with an on-campus celebration late Friday night.
BYU streamed the event live on social media, and Cougars fans even gathered to watch the countdown at Times Square in New York City.
“This is not something that just happened in the last 10 or 15 years,” Athletics Director Tom Holmoe told the crowd at BYU’s Student Athlete Building practice field prior to the countdown to midnight.
“This is something that goes back 40 or 50-plus years, with all of Cougar Nation, all of our players, the coaches, the teams, the All-Americans, the captains. They built a brand.”
That brand gained prestige Saturday as BYU was welcomed into a Power Five conference. Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston join BYU as newcomers to the Big 12.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox celebrated the Cougars’ conference affiliation by declaring July 1, 2023, as BYU Big 12 Conference Day in Utah.
BYU’s inclusion in the Big 12 creates opportunities for “enhancing perceptions of Utah and other higher eduction institutions among local and national audiences,” the governor’s declaration states.
BYU will compete in 20 of the 23 sports sponsored by the Big 12, with wrestling, rowing and equestrian being the exceptions. The Big 12 does not offer men’s volleyball, so BYU will remain in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for that sport.
“There’s been a lot of preparation,” Holmoe said of the transition into the Big 12. “You can prepare and hope like crazy that you’re preparing for the right thing, but I’m super excited about the preparation that our football program has made. Coach Kalani Sitake and his staff … have invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears [with] strategy and changes — all for the future, all for getting into the Big 12.”
BYU opens the 2023 football season with three non-conference home games before beginning Big 12 play Sept. 23 at Kansas. The Cougars will host Cincinnati (Sept. 29), Texas Tech (Oct. 21), Iowa State (Nov. 11) and Oklahoma (Nov. 18) in conference matchups at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The Big 12 also will honor The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-owned university’s policy for not competing in athletic events on Sundays, BYU officials said.
BYU joins the Big 12 after 12 years with the West Coast Conference. In football, the Cougars have competed as an independent since leaving the Mountain West Conference after the 2010 season.
