The Big 12 Conference is bigger than ever before with 14 schools spread across eight states, and those numbers will increase next year.
Newcomers UCF, Houston, Cincinnati and BYU bring huge student bodies into the Big 12. And more miles to travel.
A by-the-numbers look at the newfangled Big 12 going into the 2023 season, the last before Texas and Oklahoma leave for the Southeastern Conference, and at the same time four teams that are now in the Pac-12 come into the league:
ENROLLMENTS
UCF has the largest enrollment among the Big 12 schools with 59,996 undergraduate students, according to the most recent figures (fall 2021) available on the data website for the U.S. Education Department. Texas’ enrollment of 40,916 ranked second.
All four newcomers were already among the six largest enrollments in the conference. Houston was third at 38,581, ahead of continuing member Texas Tech’s 33,132 undergrad students. BYU showed an enrollment of 31,642 and Cincinnati had 28,968 on its main campus to rank sixth among the 14 schools.
TCU, with the smallest enrollment at 10,222, made the College Football Playoff national championship game last season. The men’s basketball team then made the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and the baseball team went to the College World Series.
TRAVEL TIME
Newcomer BYU will have the farthest flight for a Big 12 conference game this year, more than 1,600 air miles to play Thanksgiving weekend at West Virginia, which before the new additions was the league’s geographic outcast. A drive between those two campuses would take about 28 hours, seven times longer than it takes to fly.
West Virginia and UCF both have to fly more than 1,000 miles for four of their five away games this season. But the Mountaineers only have to go about 680 air miles for its game at UCF on Oct. 28, which is shorter than how far the Knights have to go for their game at Cincinnati.
For the league’s other 12 teams, there are only a combined five trips with flights further than 1,000 miles. That includes BYU’s trip to West Virginia.
The league’s longest potential trip is about 1,900 air miles between BYU and UCF, though the newcomers don’t play each other this season.
SOME OTHER NUMBERS
3: Time zones where the Big 12 has schools (Eastern, Central and Mountain).
5: Heisman Trophy winners in the Big 12 era for current league teams: Texas RB Ricky Williams (1998); Oklahoma QBs Jason White (2003), Sam Bradford (2008), Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018); and Baylor QB Robert Griffin III (2011). Nebraska’s Eric Crouch won in 2001 when the Cornhuskers were still in the Big 12.
