The American Athletic Conference announced an agreement Friday with Cincinnati, Houston and the University of Central Florida that paves the way for the schools to join the Big 12 in 2023.
Those three schools announced in September they had accepted invitations to join the Big 12, which moved quickly to a rebuild its membership after Oklahoma and Texas revealed they planned to join the Southeastern Conference in 2025.
With the addition of Brigham Young University in 2023 as well, the Big 12 is set to be a 14-team conference for two years.
The American Athletic Conference requires its members give more than two years' notice before they can leave the league, plus a $10 million exit fee. The AAC said its remaining members agreed to terminate the memberships of Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, effective July 1, 2023.
Each departing school agreed to pay the AAC $18 million, with more than half paid out by 2024 and the rest due over a period of 12 years, two people with knowledge of the deal told the AP. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the conference nor the schools are releasing terms of the agreement.
AAC commissioner Mike Aresco thanked the leadership of the departing schools for arriving at a "sensible resolution."
All three institutions enjoyed tremendous success under the AAC banner, and all three were instrumental in taking the conference "to great heights, both athletically and academically," Aresco said. "We wish them the best and look forward to having them compete in our conference in 2022-23."
Cincinnati has won the past two AAC football championships and reached the College Football Playoff last season, becoming the first team from a Group of Five conference to do so. UCF has also won two AAC football titles (2017-18). Houston, which lost to Cincinnati in last season's title game, has one conference title.
Houston won the AAC men's basketball title last season and reached the NCAA tourney's Final Four in 2021.
The new-look AAC is also preparing to have 14 teams in 2023, with six schools from Conference USA having already accepted invitations. Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Texas at San Antonio were all targeting 2023 to make the switch from C-USA to the AAC.
The departure of those six schools from C-USA next year was expected to become official soon, but Charlotte, Florida Atlantic and UTSA put out statements announcing they would be joining the AAC in 2023.