Big 12 has different look than 2010, but Colorado Buffaloes excited about joining UCF’s revamped conference

Some of the most memorable games in Colorado football history involve conference battles with Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri. The Buffaloes also played a pair of Big 12 title games against Texas. Those schools won’t be in the Big 12 when Colorado rejoins the conference next year, but CU’s administration is excited about the current makeup of their future home.

Six teams from the original Big 12 have since departed, or have plans to depart. CU (Pac-12) and Nebraska (Big Ten) left in 2011. Missouri and Texas A&M (SEC) left in 2012.

And Oklahoma and Texas (SEC) will leave next summer. When CU gets back to the Big 12 next year, it will renew some rivalries with Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. The Buffaloes also will get acquainted with TCU, West Virginia, BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.

Potential matchups with those schools, as well as playing games in those markets, is intriguing to the Buffs. “If you think about the Big 12 in the past, it was all those middle states around us,” CU athletic director Rick George said. “Now being able to go and play in Cincinnati, which is a good market for us; and to go in to play in Orlando, those factors were really important for us because the conference is different than it was [then].

And the fact that they added Houston I think is really favorable. It’s the seventh largest market in the country. We recruit really well out of there.

We looked at this thing in very detailed format to make the decision that we did. ” BOULDER, CO - JULY 27:Chancellor Philip DiStefano speaks during a press conference at the Champions Center at the University of Colorado Boulder on Thursday, July 27, 2023. The CU Board of Regents unanimously voted to approve a resolution to join the Big 12 Conference for the 2024-25 academic year.

(Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer) BOULDER, CO – JULY 27:Chancellor Philip DiStefano speaks during a press conference at the Champions Center at the University of Colorado Boulder on Thursday, July 27, 2023. The CU Board of Regents unanimously voted to approve a resolution to join the Big 12 Conference for the 2024-25 academic year. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer) At the time that CU made the decision to leave the Big 12 in 2010, the conference looked to be on the verge of collapse.

There were serious talks about the Pac-10 taking as many six teams from the Big 12 — Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and CU — while Missouri and Nebraska (and Texas) were being courted by the Big Ten. “Many people back then thought that was it; that was the demise of a conference,” CU chancellor Philip DiStefano said Thursday, “and it didn’t turn out that way. It just turned out the opposite.

” CU and Nebraska both left in 2011 and Missouri and Texas A&M left a year later, but the Big 12 got off the deck and added TCU and West Virginia to make up for some of the losses. When Oklahoma and Texas announced two years ago their decisions to leave for the SEC in 2024, it appeared to be another crushing blow to the Big 12. Certainly losing the two marquee programs isn’t good for the Big 12, but adding four new teams this year — plus Colorado next year — has provided a tremendous boost again.

“There was that instability that was going on in the Big 12 at the time [in 2010], which now I look at and think about the resilience of the Big 12,” DiStefano said. “I think they became stronger. ” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark will reach his one-year anniversary on the job on Tuesday.

In that short time, he’s made some moves to generate excitement within the conference. At Big 12 media day in Arlington, Texas, on July 12, exactly two weeks before news broke of CU’s jump to the conference, Yormark expressed his excitement in the new version of the Big 12. “I want the Big 12 to be the best version of ourselves and if we can do that, we’re in a great place,” he said.

“So it’s not about ranking us within the Power Five. But I can tell you this: There’s been no better time to be a part of the Big 12 than right now. And this thing is going to grow.

It’s going to move forward in a positive way and I’m really excited about our future. ” That future will now include the Buffaloes. “As we looked at this during this process, it became clear that the Big 12 was the best fit for us,” George said.

“We feel really good about where we are today and what the future looks like for Colorado. ” Reworking the schedule In moving to the Big 12, CU will have to do some work on its future non-conference scheduling in football. Scheduling many years in advance is common in college football and CU has three home-and-home sets currently scheduled with Big 12 teams: Houston (2025 and 2026), Kansas State (2027 and 2028) and Oklahoma State (2036 and 2037).

“We’ll have to dissolve those contracts, obviously, and then we will look to fill those games as quickly as we can,” George said. “But what I think it gives us an opportunity to do is create more home contests here, because we may go out and look for opponents that are just going to play in Boulder one year. So rather than having six games [at Folsom Field], we’ll have seven, which again, helps us in revenue generation for our department.

” Most Power Five schools routinely schedule seven home games and every Power 5 school — except CU — has had least one seven-game home schedule since 2018. The Buffs have had as many as seven home games only twice in their history, in 1982 (seven) and 1978 (eight). .