HOUSTON – At the stroke of midnight, Saturday, a new era for the University of Houston Athletics Department began as the Cougars officially entered the Big 12 Conference.
Houston fans will be energized as the Cougars return to old rivalries against Baylor, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, and Texas and Oklahoma (if only for a year before the latter two depart from the league), continue recent rivalries from the American Athletic Conference vs. Cincinnati and UCF and restart younger ones against BYU, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and West Virginia.
The Big 12 will be the seventh league in which the University of Houston will compete in intercollegiate athletics. Men's Basketball is the only Houston Athletics sports program to win a conference championship in every league in which the Cougars have competed.
Football, Volleyball, Baseball, Men's Tennis and Men's Golf captured trophies from four different leagues while Men's and Women's Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field each earned hardware from three different conferences.