An Ode to the 10 Team Big 12

After months of speculation, the official word has been handed down that Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF have secured a deal to leave the AAC for the Big 12 in the summer of 2023, joining fellow new member BYU and completing this era of expansion. Realignment is not yet complete. Texas and Oklahoma are avoiding getting crushed by Alabama and Georgia waiting out their commitments to staying through 2025. Then the new era begins. But before we start over and find our place in the hierarchy of college athletics, I wanted to look back at the 10-team Big 12 era that survived the last round of realignment.

On the outside, I feel like the perception of the Big 12 is that everyone is in an unhappy…