The Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners both forfeit $100 million in order to expedite their conference switch to move to the SEC
The Red River Showdown has packed its bags and will move to the SEC a year earlier than most of us thought. Texas and Oklahoma were both set to switch from the Big 12 conference to the Southeastern Conference following a decision in 2021 where the two teams decided that the SEC was the better spot for them to compete.
The Big 12 announced on Thursday that the conference has agreed in principle, contingent on legal paperwork to part ways with the two institutions a year earlier than originally expected. 2023 will be the last season that the Longhorns and Sooners compete in the Big 12. The original date for the two teams to move out was June 1st, 2025, but will now be switched to 2024 after the two teams felt like it would be more amicable for them to join the SEC as soon as possible.
Both Texas and Oklahoma will have to pay the Big 12 $100 million each as part of their contract with the conference, citing an “early withdrawal”, a fine which both schools described as “being able to partially offset with future revenue”.
A BIG 10 DEBACLE: CJ Stroud’s Declaration For NFL Draft Shakes Up Ohio State’s Future
This isn’t precedent, as another school in the Lone Star State left the Big 12 earlier for the heights of the SEC. Texas A&M departed the Big 12 conference in 2012 after being a founding and inaugural member of the organization in 1996. A&M has seen sporadic success in their new home, with recent years being not so kind to their reputation. The SEC last expanded in 2012, with A&M and the University of Missouri joining their ranks– which the conference has yet to duplicate ever since.
The arrival of the two new teams embodies a fountain of youth for the SEC, where 71% of their teams have stuck around since the conference’s inception in 1932. The conference is still in the midst of gearing up for the duo, whose applications were unanimously approved by the SEC’s higher-ups for their arrival in 2025. The Southeastern Conference put out a memo that stated, “We are continuing our preparation for this membership transition, and we look forward to welcoming the conference’s new members and moving into our future as a 16-team league.”
The two teams’ move comes at a time of intrigue for both organizations. The Oklahoma Sooners are one year removed from a disappointing 6-7 season, one in which they posted a 3-6 record in the relatively weaker Big 12. Sooners head coach Brent Venables finished out his freshman season where he started out red hot with 3 straight wins, yet that ship quickly sank for a Sooners team that has seldom struggled in recent years. Now, Venables will have to contend with a move to the consensus number one conference in the NCAA three years into his young tenure with Oklahoma.
Venables has been juggling with a rebuild as the Sooners try to recover from the fallout after Lincoln Riley’s abrupt egress from Norman. Despite this, Oklahoma will be forced into cahoots with the likes of Alabama and Georgia.
Texas looks to reload after an up and down 8-5 season, where they almost knocked off No. 1 Alabama and took down No. 13 Kansas State. Texas seems to have found their quarterback, with Quinn Ewers set to take the stand in 2023, but his return in 2024 is yet to be determined as he turns draft-eligible.
Texas has taken the liberty of signing blue-chip prospect Arch Manning, meaning he will take the reins for most of the the team’s infancy stages in the SEC, but more improvements have to happen in order for Texas to be in prime position to take on the kingpins of the conference.
Lucky for either of these teams, the SEC’s power parity tends to swing in one direction– towards the bigwigs. In a conference where Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU rule supreme, it’s easy to look over other teams in the conference which pose similar or worse competition than the two have seen in Big 12 play.
Arkansas, Mizzou, Vanderbilt, Florida, and Texas A&M are all fair game for Oklahoma or Texas in their first year as entrants to the SEC. Especially with the SEC’s head-scratching blunders with upset losses. Arkansas’ loss to Liberty, A&M with Appalachian State, and Mizzou’s somewhat too close for comfort win over Vanderbilt shows that the SEC is not the god the rest of the world wants to think they are. It is a conference underlined by dichotomy, something that Texas and Oklahoma can exploit.
As for the Big 12, their 2023 season has some fresh faces. The conference will add a slew of teams: BYU, UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati will all play in the 14-team league for the 23-24 season, thus setting the conference up well after Oklahoma and Texas leave.
