Oklahoma football: This could be day Sooners’ SEC move becomes official?
By Chip Rouse
The future of Oklahoma football could be decided by the end of the day today.
This has been an historic week if you follow college football in general and Oklahoma football in particular.
A week ago, the Houston Chronicle broke the story that OU and Texas were in discussions with the SEC to join that conference. On Monday this week, Oklahoma and Texas informed the Big 12 that they would not renew the Big 12’s grant of rights agreement, which is set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 athletic year.
That set the scene for the next move in this day-by-day drama, which occurred on Tuesday. That’s when the presidents of OU and Texas sent a joint formal letter requesting an invitation to join the Southeastern Conference.
As early as today, when representatives of the 14 member SEC schools are scheduled to meet, a vote could be taken officially accepting the Sooners and Longhorns as members. The meeting of SEC officials ostensibly was already on the calendar and was not scheduled in ad hoc fashion to specifically address the request made by OU and Texas.
We’re not even sure if there is an agenda item to address this pending situation. But multiple sources, including Chip Brown, a Texas insider for 247Sports, are reporting that action on the request is expected to happen. It will require a yes vote by at least 11 of the 14 member schools for the request to join to be accepted.
As of Wednesday evening, the vote to accept Oklahoma and Texas as new members of the SEC is expected to pass, according to Brown.
If an affirmative vote takes place sometime today, both schools have regents meetings set for Friday to formally sign and approve the move to the SEC.
Officials of both Oklahoma and Texas have informed the Big 12 that they are prepared to wait until the current grant of rights deal expires in June of 2025.
That does not mean that they could not leave the Big 12 earlier to join the SEC, but if they were to do so after, say, the next two seasons, they would be forced to forfeit the remaining Big 12 television revenue, which could amount to as much as $80 million each. It is believed, however, that the revenue loss from the Big 12 could be made up by the marginal gain of what each school will receive as a member of the SEC.
The expected move to the SEC will reunite the Sooners and Longhorns with former Big 12 schools Missouri and Texas A&M.
Earlier in the week, it was widely reported that Texas A&M was not in favor of accepting Oklahoma and, primarily, longtime rival Texas, into the SEC. The Texas A&M regents, however, voted 8-1 on Wednesday in favor of accepting OU and Texas into the SEC.
With a yes vote by Texas A&M, the vote on accepting the Sooners and Longhorns into the SEC is expected to be unanimous.