University of Colorado Joining Big 12 in 2024

 

 

The University of Colorado and the Big 12 Conference have reached an agreement whereby Colorado will leave the PAC-12 Conference and join the Big 12 in 2024.

The Colorado Board of Regents voted unanimously in favor of the move, as did the leaders of the Big 12.

Colorado's departure will coincide with the end of the Pac-12 television deal, which expires after the 2023-24 season. This means Colorado will not have to pay an exit fee to the Pac-12. Colorado is expected to join the Big 12 at a pro rata basis, which is an average of $31.7 million in television revenue over the course of the league's new deal starting in 2025.

Colorado's decision is the latest blow to the Pac-12, which is losing USC and UCLA to the Big Ten in 2024 and is amid a contracted process of landing a new television deal.

Colorado's move marks a return to the Big 12, of which it was a member from 1996 to 2010. 

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Colorado is the first Power 5 team that has left a conference and returned to the same league of its own volition.

Colorado left for the Pac-12 in 2011 and has had no bowl wins and just two winning football seasons since the move. Colorado is coming off a 1-11 season, and new coach Deion Sanders will coach just one season in the Pac-12.

In the 2022 football season-opener for both teams, TCU defeated Colorado in Boulder, 38-13. It was a game that marked the beginning of TCU quarterback Max Duggan's rise to a Heisman Trophy-runerup and TCU's run to the 2023 College Football Playoff Championship Game.

TCU and Colorado will open their 2023 seasons against one another, in Fort Worth, on September 2.

The acceptance of Colorado into the Big 12 continues a string of the conference welcoming new league members over the last several years. 

The Big 12 added West Virginia (Big East) and TCU (Mountain West) in 2012. 

In the wake of the departure of Oklahoma and Texas, which will start play in the SEC in 2024, the Big 12 this year added Cincinnati (AAC), UCF (AAC), BYU (independent) and Houston (AAC).