Oklahoma, Texas Reach Out to SEC About Joining Conference: Report
Oklahoma and Texas have reached out to the SEC about joining the conference, according to a new report from the Houston Chronicle.
This report comes from a high-ranking college football official with “knowledge of the situation”. The person said that an announcement could come soon regarding the potential addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. This would create the first super conference in college football, giving the league 16 teams.
This would be the first major conference expansion in college football in nearly a decade since the Big 12 got a shake up that included Texas A&M, Missouri, Colorado and Nebraska all leaving the conference for the SEC, Pac-12 and Big Ten, respectively.
At the time, the Big 12 added two solid programs and brands in TCU and West Virginia, and for the better part of a decade, the conference has been in a good place with a true round robin schedule in football, a double round robin in basketball, and more continuity than the conference has had in years.
Just last month I wrote that the Big 12 needed Oklahoma and Texas to get along to keep the Big 12 in tact. It would be beneficial to the two programs (who call all the major shots in the conference), and the rest of the Big 12, for the conference to continue as it currently exists. However, it looks like Oklahoma and Texas are getting along, just not in the way any of us expected.
This news also comes on the heels of ESPN and FOX rejecting the Big 12‘s overtures of extending the TV deal that is currently in place. The report said that the TV partners were not yet ready to discuss an extension beyond the current deal. Per the Avalanche-Journal, “That was a message Big 12 presidents, chancellors and athletics directors heard on a Zoom video conference Monday with a media consulting group it enlisted months ago, Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said.”
There are currently four years left on a 13-year deal that runs through 2025.
The Big 12 formed in 1996 and needless to say its future would be unknown without the two biggest brands in the conference.
