The Needless Extravagance of Oklahoma’s and Texas’ SEC Action
The Big 12’s dominant teams quitting their conference will solidify some of the worst practices in college athletics.
There are two ways that a realignment wave in college sports conferences begins. The most natural is the first one: After a few schools get in contact, they discover they have some touchpoints of shared culture in addition to shared interests that are best pursued jointly. That is how the Big East was founded in 1979 and developed into a renowned basketball league that also participated in football and other sports in the ensuing years. It’s also how the Big Eight and the top half of the Southwest Conference merged to form the Big 12 in the 1990s.
Alternatively, one or two universities could light a stick of dynamite and toss it through the remaining college sports programs to kickstart conference realignment.
Texas and Oklahoma will both join the SEC sooner rather than later from the Big 12, the leagues they founded. When news broke last week that UT and OU were considering applying to join the SEC and no one involved refuted it, it appeared likely. However, it is now almost a given because the two most successful Big 12 schools have formally notified the other teams in their league that they will not renew their media rights agreement with the conference after it expires in 2025.
The Longhorns and Sooners will be out in a short while. It is their belief that the eight Big 12 schools that are still in the running will prefer a settlement of some sort to break up with each other sooner rather than face the humiliation of being cuckolded for four years during conference realignment, with the two biggest brands in the conference playing the role of lame ducks. There will be ripple effects on college sports when UT and OU depart. From Morgantown to Lubbock, all sports talk radio hosts can speculate about those predictions, and some of them may even be correct. Maybe BYU, an independent now, will join the remaining members of the Big 12! Perhaps the ACC will intensify its efforts to acquire Notre Dame! Perhaps Iowa State will make it to the Big
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