When the Big 12 announced its intention to expand the conference last summer, it was a mild surprise that UCF was among the four schools to receive an invitation.
Although this move did not make sense geographically, proximity to other schools and regional markets has taken a backseat to national brands and dominant teams in this new conference structure. Especially with USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten, UCF looks like an ideal school to make the Big 12 a more competitive conference overall. In addition, with high expectations for the 2022 football season, especially with former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn leading the team, their addition will undoubtedly raise the level of competition in the Big 12 next season.
Quietly, the Knights have built a football program that is not only a contender to win the American Athletic Conference every year but has also received national attention in recent memory. Since 2017, UCF has had three different head coaches and remained competitive every year. Under Scott Frost, the Knights jumped onto the national stage by going undefeated. However, UCF was not selected to play in the college football playoff. While this was a controversial decision, the Knights rebounded and defeated Auburn in the Peach Bowl.
Although the Knights have not lived up to their 2017 season as of late, under Gus Malzahn, UCF looks to build off their bowl win against Florida last year. While the program is trending in the right direction, Cincinnati’s dominant football season, BYU’s national brand, and Houston’s stellar basketball program overshadow UCF joining the Big 12. Even though it will take UCF a couple of years to compete in their new conference, the Knights are not getting the attention they deserve a year away from joining the Big 12. While this may change after this upcoming football season, at the very least, UCF will shake up the Big 12 rankings in 2023.
With several conferences around the country following the Big 12’s lead and scrapping divisions, the conference will likely move forward with this structure, even with four teams joining next July. However, the Big 12 still wants to promote rivalries. One system the conference could employ is having one team face the same three teams annually. For example, Houston could play Baylor, Texas Tech, and TCU every year. While Cincinnati is an obvious choice for the Mountaineers due to the proximity of the two schools, UCF may also fall into that category. Since West Virginia and UCF are the two schools closest to the east coast and the rest of the conference resides primarily in the mid-west, the Mountaineers could be facing the Knights every season beginning next year.
Along with potentially providing a rivalry with West Virginia, UCF joining the Big 12 allows all members to now have a recruiting connection to Florida. While top recruits may still join national powers, the Big 12 is a prominent conference and could see a rise in four-star players committing to its members. Especially if West Virginia plays UCF in Orlando every other year, an influx of Florida recruits to Morgantown would not be surprising.
While UCF might not immediately dominate the Big 12, they are being overlooked compared to the other three teams joining the conference. Along with providing West Virginia with a new rival and a potential Florida recruiting pipeline to Morgantown, UCF makes the Big 12 better by raising the level of competition on the field as well as providing more depth to the conference. While the move raised quite a few eyebrows initially, UCF joining the Big 12 helps the conference establish a more prominent presence on the national stage.
