Today marks the start of a new era in the Big 12 Conference.

The league will welcome new members Cincinnati, Houston, Central Florida and BYU to become full-members bringing the total number of teams to 14 for a season.

“I’m excited about the new Big 12 with our position and ability to compete,” West Virginia Director of Athletics Wren Baker said.

The league will play out this coming season with 14-teams as both Texas and Oklahoma will remain members of the conference until next year when both will move onto the SEC.

But as far as the new additions, Baker is excited about the addition of Cincinnati in the league and believes that will develop into a great rivalry over time although he admits that it won’t happen overnight.

The two teams shared a league from 2005-2011 when the Mountaineers and Bearcats were members of the Big East Conference.

But Cincinnati won’t be the only team in the Eastern Time Zone joining the Mountaineers in the new look Big 12 Conference. Central Florida is an option that will bring the football program to where there are a lot of alumni and donors.

“That’s going to give us a chance to connect with them,” Baker said.

Obviously losing two storied programs and linchpins of the league such as Texas and Oklahoma is less than ideal, but the new Big 12 Conference is aligned and commissioner Brett Yormark was able to secure an extension to the lead rights deal to help further stabilize the league moving forward.

That extension will run through the 2031 season and will pay each member $31.7 million in television revenue alone. The total package including College Football Playoff and NCAA Tournament money is expected to be nearly $50 million per team.

And it’s for those reasons that Baker and others in the league are excited about the future.

“The future of the Big 12 is very bright and very good for WVU,” he said.

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