Out with the old, in with the new. The old saying rings true for what has been a tumultuous decade for the Big 12. Teams going, teams threatening to go, and teams coming in have shaped the Big 12 into not so much a conference that represents the lower Midwest and Mid-South, as it was in yesteryear, but rather a colorful mix of teams from all over the country. Teams such as West Virginia, Iowa State, Texas Tech, and others have been the outskirts of Big 12 territory, until now. As Texas and Oklahoma leave for the more southern-centric pastures of the SEC, four new teams are set to join the conference in 2023. Cincinnati, BYU, UCF, and Houston are all taking their talents and testing their mettle against athletic organizations with high merit and a tradition of excellence (and sometimes not, in fact with some the whole "excellence" thing is a far cry from what that team shows on the field of play)
These teams however HAVE shown that they can compete with the big schools, UCF and Cincinnati have had a lot of recent football success, and Houston has shown it is a top tier basketball program. BYU as well has shown balance in athletic success across the board. Overall I believe these teams to be good additions and will prove to be good, more equal competition as opposed to OU and Texas, which think they have something to prove going to the SEC. We'll see if they last, but unlike some nay-sayers I think all four of these programs will show they can handle programs like KU Basketball, K-State Football, and Baylor's prestige in both major sports as well, not to mention the other sports such as the Baylor women's basketball program, Oklahoma State baseball, Kansas women's soccer, and other programs that will really test these teams. I'll go into what I think about where teams will end up and how they'll fare in a future Scorchcast, but in short I believe the Big 12 will be just fine with the competition that they're bringing in and the competition that is exiting. The better question is, at least in my opinion, how will teams like Texas and OU go up against the juggernauts that await them in the SEC? I guess we shall S-E-SEE! (I'll see myself out)
Burn Notice: 9/10 You think any hot rivalries will pop up out of the conference change? Let me know below!
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