There have been a litany of changes in the world of college football of late, so why not throw in another wrinkle ahead of the upcoming season. Multiple insiders are now reporting that both Oklahoma and Texas have reached out to the SEC in a bid to join the nation’s most powerful conference.
Should OU & Texas be granted admission, the SEC would essentially become a 16 team super conference, while the Big 12 (the current home of both programs) would be left in shambles. The move isn’t unprecedented, as it was only a few years back in 2012 when Texas A&M, formerly of the Big 12, joined the SEC in hopes of finding greener pastures.
Such a move however would cause a domino effect throughout the college conferences, with the remaining Big 12 (though they’re technically already down to only 10 member schools) likely to jump ship to other conferences as well. If Texas and Oklahoma, the two most storied and lucrative programs remaining in the conference, were to leave there would be little sense in the other schools remaining in what would amount to an 8 team mini conference.
Outside of Oklahoma and Texas, the Big 12 consists of Baylor, Iowa St., Kansas, Kansas St., Oklahoma St., TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia. The rumours of Oklahoma and Texas looking to jump ship aren’t the first time the programs have been linked to swapping conferences. Both programs nearly joined the Pac-10 conference nearly a decade ago after years of being unsatisfied with the direction of the Big 12.
Of the 14 current members of the SEC, 11 would need to vote in favour of accepting additional programs into the conference in order to ratify the move. Based on preliminary reactions from the Texas A&M and Missouri football programs to Wednesday’s news, you can likely count them amongst the schools who will be voting against their inclusion. Which means that if two other schools in the SEC are also against the super conference idea, the motion may fail to pass.
While the SEC, Texas & Oklahoma have all issued statements where they refused to comment on the rumours, it was telling that none of the reps denied the reports either. Some pundits have insinuated that an announcement of the SEC welcoming OU and Texas could be imminent. Even if this isn’t the case, the writing appears to be on the wall that both programs are looking to close the chapter on their Big 12 future.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner