What Does Cincinnati 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.

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

At the conclusion of the 2023 season, Scott Goggins resigned as Cincinnati’s head coach after one winning season (2021) and one NCAA Tournament appearance (2019) in his six years at the head of the Bearcats program.

Cincinnati Athletics

Cincinnati hired Central Michigan’s Jordan Bischel to take over as head of the program this offseason.

Cincy has since hired Jordan Bischel, an ascending star in the coaching industry who has been the head man at Central Michigan for the last five seasons and led them to three NCAA Tournament appearances.

At age 42, Bischel has an overall coaching record of 314-156 with 10 winning seasons and four conference tournament championships (two in the MAC with CMU and two with Division II Northwood).

"Every level he went to, he found a way to win quickly," UC Athletic Director John Cunningham said of Bischel. "His teams loved to play for him. I talked to a lot of different people and players about him. One of the things that kept coming up is just that they love the game when they play.”

Cincinnati has failed to win a regular season conference championship and has only appeared in the NCAA Tournament one time (2019) in the last 25 years across Conference USA (1996-2005), the Big East (2006-2013) and the American Athletic Conference (2014-2023).

The most notable Bearcat baseball alumni include Sandy Koufax (one season), Kevin Youkilis, Ian Happ and Josh Harrison.

With a program that has traditionally struggled in a colder area of the country, one might expect Cincinnati to be a perennial bottom feeder in the Big 12. It may be that way initially as they get accustomed to life in a power conference with a new coach.

However, I believe in Bischel and think the Bearcats can be a solid program if he doesn’t use the job as a stepping stone.