The Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners football teams will have to wait a bit longer to make their Big 12 exit to the SEC. Texas and Oklahoma football's efforts to leave the Big 12 early in 2024 have ‘stalled' and it is ‘unlikely‘ to occur at this point, sources told Pete Thamel of ESPN.
Instead, Texas and Oklahoma football will leave for the SEC in 2025, as the two schools were unable to arrive at an agreement in the negotiations between themselves, television networks Fox and ESPN, and the Big 12, reports Thamel.
Both the Longhorns and Sooners initially announced their intentions to leave the Big 12 back in July of 2021, though both schools had said that they would “honor their existing agreements” with the conference.
Given the conference's tv rights deal, which isn't set to expire until the 2025 season, both schools were unable to leave for the SEC before then.
However, momentum began to build for an early exit in December- and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormack said that he would be “open” to Texas and Oklahoma football leaving early.
The two sides were reportedly “engaged” in discussions about the early exit in December, though a recent offer to the Big 12 was “rejected”, according to 247 Sports.
If Texas and Oklahoma were to leave early, it would require school exit fees, ESPN footing the bill for an extra year of their SEC deal, and Fox needing to “be made whole”, given that its two most lucrative programs would be leaving early.
Clearly, coming to an agreement that satisfied all parties proved to be too difficult.
Alas, it's becoming more and more likely that the SEC will have to wait until 2025 for Texas and Oklahoma football.
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