How Big 12 football could accommodate newcomers during realignment

We’ve just learned how Big 12 football will accommodate Oklahoma, Texas, UCF, Houston, Cincinnati, and BYU for realignment from 2023-2025.

A new report from CBS Sports says we should expect Big 12 football to consider splitting itself into two new divisions to accommodate the overlapping years between the new teams arriving and Oklahoma and Texas leaving the conference.

The conference, beginning with the 2023 season, will likely bloat to 14 total teams. According to the report, Oklahoma and Texas are not expected to depart for the SEC until their contract runs out in 2025.

Additionally, newcomers UCF, Houston, Cincinnati, and BYU are all expected to become members of Big 12 football in time for the 2023 season.

This creates a bit of a scheduling conundrum and could necessitate the conference to create two divisions of seven teams each for the seasons over overlap between 2023-2025.

New Big 12 football divisions during 2023-2025 realignment overlap

The two divisions would likely house seven teams each. The projected divisions could look something like this, according to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports:

Big 12 North

• Cincinnati
• BYU
• Iowa State
• Kansas
• Kansas State
• Oklahoma
• Oklahoma State

Big 12 South

• Baylor
• Houston
• TCU
• Texas
• Texas Tech
• UCF
• West Virginia

Dodd’s report mentions a nine-game division schedule and the two division winners meeting for the Big 12 Championship.

This means, in this projected construction, we could see some very interesting and exciting matchups.

How about a rematch of the 2021 AAC Championship featuring Cincinnati and Houston, but instead for the Big 12 title?

Could we see former UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel meet his old team in a game in 2023 if Oklahoma and UCF meet for a game?

What about a Big 12 title game featuring the two departing teams, Texas and Oklahoma?

Baylor and Houston could rekindle their old Southwest Conference rivalry. The two teams haven’t met for a football game since 1995.

The crazy and the chaos could be moot if the Longhorns and the Sooners pay up and leave for the SEC early. If they stick around, it’ll create a ridiculously exciting two seasons of football.

We would likely see the Big 12 shift to two divisions of six once those two teams leave for the SEC, according to the report.

The talks of how to splice up the teams into divisions are still ongoing and could end up with no divisions at all, according to a source involved in the talks referenced in Dodd’s report.