Texas Says Oklahoma Will Leave Big 12 for SEC


Oklahoma and Texas’ decisions will have the biggest impact on the Big 12 and likely the SEC, but will drive a process known as electoral realignment, which can shuffle conferences’ membership lists from coast to coast. Transitions from one Power 5 conference to another are much less common, though there are some changes within the sprawling NCAA, which has about 1,100 member schools each year. Yet when they do occur, they often have enormous financial and competitive consequences.

Like coaching changes and player commitments, conference replacement plans can collapse before they’re finalized. But notices to the Big 12, whose leaders met with Oklahoma and Texas officials on Sunday to fend off exits, are among the strongest possible signals that universities expect new deals to happen soon.

The SEC, the nation’s premier college football conference, was at the center of what Texas played on Wednesday as “rumor or speculation” unconvincingly. The league already boasts some of the strongest brands in football, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia and the State of Louisiana, but a draw in Oklahoma and Texas would both expand the conference footprint and add two proud, tradition-bound programs.

And it’s almost certain to enrich the league dramatically.

In December, SEC signs deal with ESPN That would pay the league $300 million a year, according to people familiar with its terms. The addition of Oklahoma and Texas will give the conference new leverage for a rights deal whose value could skyrocket with the arrival of two strong brands.

Indeed, one of the toughest issues surrounding the possible separation of Oklahoma and Texas was how much universities could pay the Big 12 and its schools in a buyout deal. Like all other Big 12 schools, Texas and Oklahoma agreed to give the conference control of its most lucrative television rights, including football and most men’s and women’s basketball games, which the conference later sold to ESPN and Fox in a $2.6 billion deal. 2024-25 academic year.



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