ORLANDO, Fla. — Nine months after accepting an invitation to the Big 12 Conference, UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir celebrated the program’s final hurdle by announcing the school would be joining the Power Five league in time for the 2023 football season.
The move comes after months of back-and-forth negotiations with UCF, which were joined by Cincinnati and Houston, and the American Athletic Conference in order to work out an early exit from the league.
“It was good it ended on what we did,” Mohajir said Friday afternoon. “The main thing is to give your fan base, your student-athletes, your coaches, your key stakeholders, your alumni, everybody involved in your program some definitive timetables when you’re entering and we did that and I feel really good about it.”
The move becomes effective July 1, 2023.
Each of the three schools will pay an $18 million buyout over 14 years to the AAC, a source confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel. The Athletic was the first to report the figures.
“Sometimes you trade time for money,” Mohajir said. “The terms were very fair for both.”
The money for the buyout will come directly from the individual schools, not from the Big 12 as some speculated. Each of the schools is also on the hook for a $2.5 million entry fee to get into the league.
It’s another reason why Mohajir has stressed the importance of fundraising particularly with the creation of campaigns like Mission 12.
“Not only do we have the funding to take care of on the exit, but there’s a buy-in for the Big 12 and then there’s also all the operating capital that you have to raise money for the facilities and personnel,” Mohajir explained.
While a move to the Big 12 comes with a significant financial boost in terms of revenue — the league distributed a record $42.6 million to its members in 2020-21 — UCF and the other new schools won’t see a full payment until 2025. Starting in 2023, the Knights will receive $18 million and $19 million in 2024 according to Mohajir.
In contrast, UCF received $7.96 million in media revenue from the AAC in 2020-21.
Even with the impending departures of Texas and Oklahoma, which are scheduled to leave for the SEC in 2025, the Big 12′s new media rights deal would still provide a major impact for new members like UCF.
“It could be a game-changer for us,” Mohajir said. “We have to do our part with the league and we have to continue to be competitive. We’ve got to continue to grow our emerging brand nationally. We need our fans watching our games. We need lots of eyeballs, we need attendance.”
When UCF first made the move to join the Big 12, the initial word from conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby — who is retiring later this summer — was that the three AAC schools would become members no later than the 2024-25 athletic year.
Meanwhile, BYU, which is independent, could join in 2023.
AAC bylaws made the arrival time uncertain. UCF, Houston and Cincinnati were required to give a 27-month notice to their league and pay a $10 million exit penalty.
By that timeline, the three schools would just miss the 2023 football season. If they wanted to leave earlier, their payout would have to be larger.
When the University of Connecticut departed the AAC in 2019, the Huskies paid $17 million to join the Big East in 2020, the Hartford Courant reported.
“It’s a fair deal and it’s sensible,” AAC commissioner Mike Aresco told the Sentinel on Friday. “We’re satisfied and we think it’s a fair amount. Ultimately, in these situations, when somebody wants to leave early, you try to work it out if you can because it’s always better to figure it out.
“The best thing is that we ended up amicably. This isn’t personal. We said it a million times, but it isn’t. You may take it personally but it isn’t, and they’re doing what they think they need to do in their best interest.”
Aresco said he’s enjoyed his relationship with the three departing schools, including UCF.
“I’ll have fond memories of those championship games and the basketball run when they had with Tacko [Fall] and Aubrey [Dawkins],” he said. “We had a great relationship going right back with [former school president] John Hitt and to former athletic directors Todd Stansbury and Danny White and even Terry Mohajir, who I’ve gotten to know lately.
“I tip my hat, they’ve done a great job and I wish them well.”
The move opens the door for the AAC to add future members UAB, FAU, Charlotte, North Texas, Rice and UTSA to its membership next season.
FAU, UTSA and Charlotte announced they would officially be leaving Conference USA and joining the AAC on July 1, 2023.
In anticipation of the turnover, the AAC reportedly reworked its media rights deal with ESPN. This comes after the league signed a 12-year deal in 2020 that was reportedly worth $1 billion.
