re: CFP Expansion, Conference Realignment, NCAA Changes

LINK ]Sources: OU, Texas to join SEC in '25 as exit talks stall (espn)

quote:

---

The negotiations for Oklahoma and Texas to leave the Big 12 a year early and join the SEC in 2024 have stalled and a deal is not expected to come to fruition, sources told ESPN on Friday morning.

After weeks of negotiations, Texas and Oklahoma are still slated to join the SEC in 2025. Sources said the parties couldn't come to terms amid a complex negotiation involving two schools, two networks (ESPN and Fox) and the Big 12.

Sources said the sides couldn't agree on how to create equitable value for what Fox would lose in 2024 -- the equivalent of seven football games featuring Oklahoma and Texas that command premium advertising.

The negotiations heated up over the past few days, with the Big 12 meetings late this week doubling as an unofficial deadline to get a deal done.

The timeline in play -- the 2024 season -- leaves some ambiguity and small potential for a Hail Mary revival, but the strong expectation remains that Oklahoma and Texas will play in the 14-team Big 12 in 2023 and 2024.

"There's no formal timeline or brink from which you can't come back," an industry source said. "But this is where things are right now -- a deal is unlikely."

Ever since Oklahoma and Texas agreed to join the SEC in the summer of 2021, there has been a drumbeat of conversation surrounding whether they would be able to leave the Big 12 early. The schools are contractually committed to play through the 2024 football season, covering four full seasons since the decision to switch conferences. In the recent history of conference realignment, that is an unprecedented amount of time to play out as a departing member.

It was always unlikely that they would leave before that final year of the deal, 2024, as the dynamics of scheduling, the cost of departure and the way the television contracts were structured made any type of quicker move clunky. But with ESPN holding the entire rights to the SEC starting in 2024, the possibility always loomed of brokering a deal a year early.

Instead, Oklahoma and Texas are slated to play out the final seasons of their contracts with the Big 12.

---

ETA: It'd be funny if OU & TX both played in both of the '23 and '24 BigXII CGs.

SDSU I get inviting, even though schools like Cal would frown on

SMU I don't

quote:

---

I suppose for some Texas TV market. Seems to me the PAC12 should've added BYU & SDS before BYU went to the Big12.

---

They were never going to add BYU in the first place

There is still a chance some of the NW PAC12 schools leave. If I was the B12 I would be pushing for both AZ schools, CU, and Utah. It would make a better fit for them in the B12 especially with expanded playoffs and the 2 others schools in the PAC 12 leaving. Much more regional.

Hell I would go back and talk to Nebraska and bring them back. The time in the B10 has not been good and one of the reason they was partially Texas. Now Texas and OU leaving should be ideal for Nebraska to come back.

quote:

---

I agree Nebraska would be better off in the Big12

---

Except for making less money and having less media exposure.

The only advantage I can think of is that they might have a better chance to win against watered down competition.

I think Nebraska would recruit better and win more games by being in the B1G12.

I think adding Colorado and Nebraska would create a nice rival game. I think you have already added BYU might as well create another great conference instate with bringing Utah.

ASU & UA just add a few teams to form a western region of the conference with the others I mentioned.

I know it will not happen that way, but those teams especially the 2 AZ schools have always felt left out of the PAC 12, plus all those schools would get better game time slots not having to play in the WC time zone which has always hinder ratings which drive TV contracts.

ND yes I agree would be a perfect fit for the B1G

quote:

---

I think adding Colorado and Nebraska would create a nice rival game. I think you have already added BYU might as well create another great conference instate with bringing Utah.

---

TBH if the Big 12 wants to go to the extreme with Texas and Oklahoma leaving they can take Colorado, Utah, AZ State and Arizona... if they're still open towards raiding the Pac-12. Pac-12 will be so unstable after UCLA and USC leave, Nike wants Oregon to dip, Cal made multiple plans towards the future of their football program (i.e one of the solutions was sending them down 2 tiers into D3 I think).

Still a lot of options and time left, you can raid the AAC and get a SMU + Memphis package, you can take Boise from the MWC, maybe even take Gonzaga from the WCC as a full non-football member (loads of rumors about that last offseason).

Oh yeah, Nebraska's not leaving, money and more TV exposure after that '24 deal will make sure that they're never coming back

Good thorough article.

sec office still taking care of tn, smh...