The Houston Cougars entered Saturday’s Big 12 match up vs. UCF as a Top 20 team in the country. But based on the looks of it, you would have thought they were a winless FCS team. The crowd in Houston on Saturday was as pathetic as you will see in the league. Even Kansas during the low years of David Beatty and Les Miles showed up better than this. But when you factor in that this is a Top 20 team that can make a College Football Playoff, if things break right, this is one of the more embarrassing things I’ve seen at this level of college football.
And don’t just take my word for it, take a look for yourself.
And here’s a look of a still shot after halftime.
The Houston Cougars are 3-1 and 0-1 in the Big 12, with their lone loss by two points against Texas Tech. This team is a couple of plays away from being a 4-0 and likely ranked inside the Top 15 in the country. And THIS is the crowd?
At this point, as I shared, I am tempted to go to the relegation model and give Memphis, USF or UTSA a shot in the Big 12. I know it’s unrealistic, but we are not used to ever seeing this in the Big 12.
This is more of an ACC-type situation at places like Cal, Stanford, Duke or Syracuse. The Big 12 may not have Big Ten or SEC-level national brands, but this conference has always been known for its wildly-passionate fan bases. That’s what the league has long promoted, and has earned.
But now, in Year 4 in the Big 12 Conference, the Cougars still can’t get any momentum going from its fan base. If not now, when?
Houston Cougars Football History
Houston football has bounced through several conference homes during its history, with some of the program’s best years coming in the old Southwest Conference. The Cougars spent much of their early history either as an independent or in leagues such as the Missouri Valley Conference before joining the Southwest Conference for football in 1976. Houston immediately won the SWC title in its first season and remained in the league until it dissolved after the 1995 season. The Cougars then moved to Conference USA from 1996 through 2012, before joining the American Athletic Conference in 2013, where Houston won the 2015 conference championship during its 13-1 season. Houston accepted an invitation to the Big 12 in September 2021 and officially became a Big 12 member on July 1, 2023, joining Cincinnati, UCF and BYU in that round of expansion. The move returned Houston to a power conference for the first time since the Southwest Conference dissolved nearly three decades earlier.
