Big 12 Football: Ranking the teams that applied to join conference

3. BYU Cougars

The Brigham Young Cougars give the Big 12 a presence in the Rocky Mountain region for the first time since the Colorado Buffaloes left in 2010. Utah high school football has improved with players like Zach Wilson, Penei, and Noah Sewell playing major college football.

The Cougars joining the Big 12 also gives the conference a team its most recent national champion (1984) with the departure of Texas and Oklahoma. Of the four invitees, BYU is the most nationally recognizable program. Adding the Cougs gives the conference some national cache.

Brigham Young allows the university to compete at the Power Five level for the first time in school history. Though BYU has functioned primarily as an independent for the last decade, their conference affiliations were Group of Five before.

This move increases revenue for Brigham Young and allows them to prove they belong among the nation’s elite and would eliminate the issue the program had last year, losing just one game and being on the outside of the New Year’s Six.

Of all the schools the Big 12 invited, BYU is the school with the longest football tradition. It does make one wonder why they have not made this move sooner, but timing is everything.