On Saturday, the Big 12 officially welcomed the BYU Cougars, Cincinnati Bearcats, Houston Cougars, and UCF Knights to the conference as the next wave of significant conference realignment began.
BYU is leaving its independence behind them while Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF are moving away from the American Athletic Conference. All four schools have had substantial success in the last few years before their move to the Big 12. But what challenges will they face, and what should the reasonable expectations be for each program moving forward?
Over the next few days, we will look at each program, what those challenges will be, and what their expectations should be in the short and long term.
BYU might be the most intriguing case to discuss. The Cougars, for the most part, have always been a good program that saw the height of their program come between 1979 and 1985. During that seven-season stretch, the Cougars had six seasons of 11+ wins, including a 13-0 national championship-winning team in 1984.
The program went through some lean years between 1997 and 2005 but has again become a respectable program with seven 10+ win seasons since 2006. The Cougars will be riding a streak of five straight winning seasons into this season, including three consecutive years of eight or more wins.