Report: New Big 12 members agree to costly settlement with American Athletic Conference

Jon Rothstein was the first to report on Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF leaving the American Athletic Conference early, opting to join the Big 12 before the 2023-2024 academic year. In order to do so, a hefty buyout would have to be paid out by the three schools to the AAC.

Now, where the two differ is being reported, with Brett McMurphy of The Action Network saying the three programs want to pay somewhere near around $17-$20 million. AAC commissioner Mike Aresco initially sought $35 million, meaning they are far off from an agreement. Negotiations are still ongoing.

“Multiple sources said they are ‘fully confident’ that a settlement will be reached this month by UC, UH, UCF and the AAC,” McMurphy said.

BYU, the fourth team in the equation, will not have to pay anything as they are seen as a football independent. Every other one of their sports, minus men’s volleyball’ will be leaving the WCC and becoming full-time members of the Big 12.

For a comparison, McMurphy points out UConn only paid $17 million when they left the AAC back in 2019, despite proving just a 12-months notice.

More on the new-look Big 12 with Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF

The Big 12 will have to restructure the way their league works, at least for a couple of seasons. With the pending move to the SEC for Texas and Oklahoma, the conference will have 14 teams for a maximum of two seasons. Dellinger says when the Big 12 meetings week occur, how they structure the football schedule will be the main point of discussion.

“In fact, the main topic during Big 12 meetings (this) week will be structuring a 14-team football league: divisions or no divisions? Eight league games or 9? UCF, BYU, Houston & Cincinnati will be in the league with Texas & OU for at least one season (2023) and maybe two (2024),” Ross Dellinger of Sports Illustrated said.”

As of now, with 10 teams in the conference, the Big 12 has been playing a round-robin format — in both football (nine conference games) and basketball (18 conference games). The last time divisions were intact on the gridiron was the 2010 season before Colorado and Nebraska left for the Pac-12 and Big Ten, respectively.

As of now, the Longhorns and Sooners are set to stay in the conference until June 1, 2025. However, like Houston, Cincinnati, and UCF are doing, they could pay a buyout fee to the Big 12 and leave for the SEC earlier.

Until then, the Big 12 will have 14 teams and a few new schedule structures to deal with.