Big 12 extends membership invitations to BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston

The Big 12 Conference announced Friday that it extended membership invitations to BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston. 

"Today's actions were in accordance with Big 12 Conference Bylaw 1.5.2.b.3 requiring an affirmative vote of a supermajority of directors and was approved unanimously by the eight continuing members," the Big 12 said in a statement.

The news comes after it was announced Oklahoma and Texas would be leaving the conference to join the SEC. Despite losing Oklahoma and Texas, though, the Big 12 will be able to move forward as a league and maintain its status as a Power Five conference. 

BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston are expected to join the Big 12 by 2023 or 2024, according to ESPN's Heather Dinich and Adam Rittenberg. Oklahoma and Texas aren't leaving the conference for the SEC until 2025.

All four teams make sense as additions to the Big 12. BYU comes with a football contract with ESPN, while UCF and Cincinnati have been two of the best football schools in the American Athletic Conference in recent memory. Houston, meanwhile, has a surging basketball program that makes it an ideal candidate for the conference.

The AAC currently sits at 12 teams but will decrease to eight teams when BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston depart for the Big 12. The conference now has to decide what its next move will be, and there's no obvious candidates for the conference to add, either.