Texas Football: Should Horns and Sooners leave Big 12 before 2025?

The news that was expected to come on July 26 did arrive in the morning to start out the week on an energetic note for the Texas football program. Texas, along with the Oklahoma Sooners, are now set to leave the Big 12 for the SEC with the official announcement having arrived on the morning of July 26.

Texas and Oklahoma reportedly notified the Big 12 on July 26 that the two schools won’t be renewing the grant of rights following its expiration in 2025. This all came despite Texas and Oklahoma meeting with the Big 12 to hear any follow-up offers over the weekend.

Multiple reports arrived early this week, including one from Chip Brown of 247Sports, mentioning that Texas and Oklahoma were mostly there to listen in a meeting with Big 12 officials last weekend. That was apparently not enough for Texas and Oklahoma to want to stick around in the Big 12 any longer.

Texas football and Oklahoma set to leave the Big 12 at a maximum by 2025

The move was anticipated to come this week that these two schools would notify the Big 12 of the intention to leave for the SEC. It was just a matter of when the official move would come to start playing actual events in the SEC.

Just because Texas and Oklahoma announced the intention to leave the Big 12 this week doesn’t mean that the process is complete yet, though, to join the SEC. The process is only now beginning to get officially admitted into the SEC. That could reportedly be something that happens soon, though.

It will be interesting to see, though, if the move for the two schools to join the SEC comes before 2025. A lot of this depends on what happens with the rest of the Big 12 in the coming weeks and months. If the remaining eight teams were to band together and demand the payout from Texas and Oklahoma of roughly $150 million combined for leaving early, then the move to the SEC could come much earlier than 2025.

But if Texas and Oklahoma want to stick around to avoid that lofty payout, then the move to the SEC could take longer than two years.

If the Big 12 does stick together, the current bylaws state that Texas and Oklahoma would have to give the conference at least 18 months’ notice before going elsewhere. For that reason, many believe that the move to the SEC could come in 2023.

The ideal situation for Texas and Oklahoma would clearly be if the rest of the Big 12 did dissolve and the move could be made to the SEC that much sooner, without having to pay that massive amount to the remaining schools.

This week should continue to have a fast news cycle that will be tough for any fan to keep pace with. It looks like Texas and Oklahoma are speeding up this process as fast as possible to keep the momentum going for this move from the Big 12 to the SEC.