In Memoriam: The Big 12, 1994-2021

With Monday’s official announcement that Texas and Oklahoma will not renew the Big 12’s grant-of-rights agreement when it expires in 2025, and today’s announcement of Texas and Oklahoma being admitted into the SEC, the conference of “One True Champion” is dead. Guns Up Nation has advanced access to the obituary soon to be published about the Big 12 and wanted to take time to remember a loved one.

The Big 12 Conference

On Wednesday, July 29th, 2021, The Big 12 Conference, a caring and complacent conference and father of (once) 12 teams, passed away at the age of 27. The Big 12 was born on February 25, 1994. Once just an 8-team conference, it invited 4 Texas schools from the Southwest Conference to join its family. The Big 12 didn’t play its first game as a conference until 1996 when Texas Tech and Kansas State took the field.

Since then, the Big 12 has won three football national championships. While family members of the Big 12 certainly would have expected and hoped for more titles in football, they still achieved a total of 94 NCAA national championships. The Big 12 had an affection for high-flying offenses and defenses found normally on a 7-on-7 football field. The Big 12 also had a passion for conference deduction as the college football world was constantly realigning and growing. This conference’s ability to avoid getting a team into the playoff other than Oklahoma was truly a tradition unlike any other. After all, declaring a league champion with a simple head-to-head result would be too easy, but the Big 12’s devotion to making things difficult brought smiles to all other conferences around the country.

The Big 12 delivered unforgettable moments. Vince Young scampering into that Rose Bowl end zone to dethrone the Trojans of Los Angeles. Roy Williams proved that Superman can show up on the football field from time to time. Mahomes and Mayfield broke the scoreboard and the Big 12 record book in a single Lubbock night. Plenty of Big 12 championship game upsets, and who could forget this moment?

The Big 12 had plenty of spectacular moments off the football field as well. Cael Sanderson went 159-0. Mike Gundy informing the world he was truly “A MAN!” Kansas won 14 consecutive Big 12 men’s basketball titles. The Big 12, in all of its sports, was undoubtedly fun and frustrating all at the same time. But those who knew the Big 12 best did not waiver in this sports marriage. The Big 12 was there for its fans; for better and (many times) for worst. But the Big 12, when under attack from outsiders, was defended by its family as if it was the Alamo itself.

The Big 12 was preceded in death by the Big 8 and the Southwest Conference. The Big 12 is survived by Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Baylor, TCU, West Virginia, Iowa State, Kansas, and Kansas State. Funeral services will be held at the following locations weekly for the entirety of the 2021 college football season:

• Jones AT&T Stadium
• Boone Pickens Stadium
• Jack Trice Stadium
• Bill Snyder Family Stadium
• David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium
• McLane Stadium
• Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium
• Amon G. Carter Stadium

The Big 12 surviving members ask that you do not send flowers or donations at this time. They simply ask that when you attend games this fall remember the fun, remember the excitement, and always believe in college football, even when change is unavoidable.