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For now, Texas and Oklahoma have no plans on leaving for the SEC early.
Dave Wilson of ESPN noted Monday that the two programs are set to leave for their new conference on July 1, 2025, but incoming Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said he was open to a “win-win scenario” that could see the Longhorns and Sooners depart sooner than that.
Yet Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte and Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione didn’t seem particularly eager to make that happen.
“We’re in the Big 12,” Del Conte said. “We’re going to honor our commitments. Those things are all premature.”
Castiglione echoed those sentiments:
“Look, I know people are asking a lot of those questions and it’s fair. There’s a lot changing around us. If that facilitates a conversation that needs to take place about an earlier departure, then it does. But I have said very consistently – I know my counterpart [at Texas] Chris Del Conte said the same thing, as have our presidents – that we informed the conference that we would lead after ’25 and we plan on fulfilling our obligations and do the honorable thing.”
The Big 12 responded to the looming high-profile exits by adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, all of whom will join the conference in July 2023.
Creating schedules while Texas and Oklahoma are still in the league and four new schools are added could prove difficult, but the Longhorns and Sooners will soon be dealing with some of the best programs in the country on a near-weekly basis in a league with Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M, Florida and others.
The SEC’s ability to add two of the country’s most notable blue bloods was a major move in conference realignment, and the Big Ten seemed to respond by adding football powerhouse USC and basketball powerhouse UCLA.
However, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told reporters Monday he believes bringing in the Longhorns and Sooners is a bigger move than the Trojans and Bruins.
There is no questioning either’s status among the historical powerhouses of college football, but Oklahoma has enjoyed much more recent success than its rival. Texas has just one season with double-digit wins since 2009 and is no longer the annual national title contender it was for so long under head coach Mack Brown.
That may be changing with the addition of Ohio State transfer quarterback Quinn Ewers and the recruiting victory with Arch Manning, but life won’t get much easier in the SEC.
It appears that isn’t something Texas will have to worry about until 2025 if the athletic directors are to be believed.