What Does BYU Bring to the Big 12 in Baseball?

July 1 marked the entrance of BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston into the Big 12. For the 2024 baseball season, the conference landscape will feature 13 members: Baylor, BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech and West Virginia.

But after next season, Texas and Oklahoma will leave for the SEC, and the Big 12 will have just 11 universities with baseball programs.

In recent years, none of the four new schools have had much success on the diamond, but over the next couple of weeks, I’ll highlight each incoming member individually.

BYU Athletics

BYU held a record of 24-28 (13-14) in Trent Pratt’s first full season as head coach in 2023.

Since joining the West Coast Conference in 2012, BYU has totaled three WCC regular season titles but has made the NCAA Tournament just one time in 2017 in which they were swiftly eliminated from the Stanford Regional.

In 2022, longtime Cougars head coach Mike Littlewood (262-208) resigned from his position citing personal reasons for why he stepped down.

Trent Pratt, an assistant under Littlewood and a former All-SEC catcher at Auburn, took over as interim coach and eventually earned the head coach title at the conclusion of the season.

In a season and a half under Pratt, BYU has gone 40-37 and 23-20 in WCC conference play.

Second-Team All-WCC OF Cooper Vest and WCC All-Freshman OF Luke Anderson will be the two cornerstone players for the Cougars as they enter the Big 12 and hope to compete from the onset.

In program history, BYU has made the NCAA Tournament 16 times and has made three trips to the College World Series (1958, 1968, 1971). The most notable players include Rick Aguilera, Brian Banks, Jeremy Guthrie, Doug Howard, Dane Lorg, Wally Joyner, Vance Law, Jack Morris and Cory Snyder.

Nate Edwards

Miller Park – Larry H. Miller Field is home to the BYU Cougars.

On the bright side for the Cougars, they play in a stadium, Miller Park – Larry H. Miller Field, with arguably the most beautiful view in the country.

Another interesting caveat of playing BYU is that they are not allowed to play on Sundays. Each weekend series against the Cougars will be played Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Overall, I don’t expect BYU to be very competitive as they transition into the Big 12 and will likely be toward the bottom of the conference standings for the foreseeable future.