As If it was possible, the 2024 college football season just got even bigger. Oklahoma and Texas football are jumping from the Big 12 to the SEC a year early in 2024, and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is now in scramble mode to figure out how to best organize this complex, highly lucrative 16-piece puzzle.
That stress will be somewhat alleviated by the added revenue that behemoths like the Longhorns and Sooners will rake in, and of course the exciting new and old rivalries that will be showcased. With the dust now finally settling, Sankey spoke on the additions.
“Obviously you think about Texas A&M and Texas, but the Arkansas-Texas history, Oklahoma and Missouri — the SEC will now have a quarter of the former Big Eight members in our league,” he told ESPN's Heather Dinich.
The Big Eight merged into the Big 12 in 1994, a conference now under another massive renovation after losing two cash cows. The $100 million that Texas and Oklahoma paid the Big 12 should make the transition a bit easier, though.
For the SEC, stakes are already sky-high, but its commissioner is right. Texas A&M and Texas football have not squared off on the gridiron in over a decade following a bitter rivalry that lasted almost a century. QB Arch Manning battling Georgia or Alabama could break regular season viewership records. Oklahoma football and Alabama already have some history with one another, most recently in the 2018-19 College Football Playoff. More showdowns between them will be must-see. The possibilities all throughout the conference just go on and on.
There will be a lot to sort out, but now all parties involved can move forward. The tension in the Big 12 can simmer with focus being directed toward its own expansion efforts.
Oklahoma and Texas must brace themselves for the daunting, yet brave new world that awaits them. Now, one year earlier.
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