The 2023 Preseason Big 12 Poll was released Wednesday, and the Cougars have been picked to finish 12th in the league this season.
The University of Houston Cougars have finally gotten what they’ve longed for years.
That’s a seat at the Big 12 Conference table.
Now the real work begins as the Cougars are getting set for their inaugural Big 12 football season in a couple of months. And it’s real clear they are no longer in the American Athletic Conference of Conference USA.
The 2023 Preseason Big 12 Poll was released Wednesday and the Cougars have been picked to finish 12th in the league this season. The University of Texas is predicted to win it all during its final season in the Big 12 before bolting for the SEC.
UH coach Dana Holgorsen didn’t seem overly concerned about where his Cougars are slated to finish when he met with reporters during the Big 12 Media Day on Wednesday in Arlington.
“Being a part of it for 17 years and then being on the outside looking in for four years, I watched every game, ” said Holgorsen, who was the head coach at West Virginia when the Mountaineers entered the Big 12 and was also a member of the Texas Tech coaching staff under former coach Mike Leach. “There’s just so much parity in this league. There used to be a few layups back in the day. [Now] there aren’t any layups.”
But Holgorsen expressed his enthusiasm for the step up in competition the Cougars will now face as they return to big-time college football for the first time since the old Southwest Conference broke up in the late 1990s. Since then, UH has floated in and out of mid-major conferences.
But now they rejoin some of the old SWC foes like TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas. The Red Raiders are picked to finish fourth in the Big 12, the Horned Frogs are slated for fifth place and Baylor is sixth in the predicted order.
The Big 12, which is undergoing changes with UT and Oklahoma set to leave after the 2023-24 academic year, also now includes BYU, University of Cincinnati and University of Central Florida.
“This has been a dream come true for a lot of Cougars for a long time, ” Holgorsen said. “We’re excited about being in the Big 12 not only for this year but for years to come.”
UH, which finished 8-5 during its last season in the AAC, will open Big 12 play by hosting national runner-up TCU on Sept 12.
“Everybody is excited,” Holgorsen said. “No one is going to celebrate. We’re going to roll our sleeves up collectively.”
