IRVING, Texas-This week, BYU athletics is participating in the spring meetings with the Big 12 Conference for the first time before joining the conference in July 2023.

Also joining the Cougars at these meetings are their fellow Big 12 newcomers, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston.

However, at this time it is uncertain when the Knights, Bearcats and the Houston Cougars will officially join the Irving, Texas-based conference.

BYU is represented at this week’s meetings by athletic director Tom Holmoe, senior associate athletic director/senior woman administrator Liz Darger and associate professor/director of the Romney Institute of Public Management at the Marriott School of Management, David Hart.

Holmoe has perpetually declared, since the Cougars’ invitation to the Big 12, that the athletic department needs to “step up” to life in a Power 5 conference.

Prominent Big 12 members Oklahoma and Texas, who are slated for departure to the SEC shortly, are in attendance at these meetings this week as well.

This is a time of transition in numerous ways for the Big 12 as current commissioner Bob Bowlsby has said he is stepping down later this year.

The conference’s board of directors hope to have a new commissioner before the fall athletic season commences in August 2022.