Texas Football: South Carolina president says Horns, OU are ‘impressive’

All of the buzz surrounding the Texas football program in the coming days, weeks, and months, will continue to be the trek to leave the Big 12 for the greener pastures of the SEC. While it’s obviously not only the football program that will be headed for the SEC, that’s where most of the discussion will lie. That is because that’s where the money is.

Texas and the Oklahoma Sooners both informed the Big 12 of the intended departures this week, and subsequently applied for membership in the SEC. It looks like everything is moving along pretty fast at the moment too. If the current SEC schools don’t hold back from voting in the Longhorns and Sooners to the league soon, then this move could continue to move at a very fast pace.

And most of what we’ve heard from SEC school administrators in the past few days, the news should be good for Texas and Oklahoma to move into the league shortly. One good example is what the president of the University of South Carolina had to say about the vote of these two schools into the SEC.

University of South Carolina president Harris Pastides high on Texas football, OU

According to a report from the Post and Courier on July 27, South Carolina president Harris Pastides stated that Texas and Oklahoma are “worthy” of consideration by the SEC, and that the two are “impressive universities”. Here’s more on what Pastides had to say on the matter of the SEC potentially voting in Texas and Oklahoma.

"“One thing I know is that those are impressive universities, academically and with their tradition,” Pastides, whose Gamecocks first joined the SEC in 1991, told The Post and Courier. “When I will look at my personal decision, it’s not merely their athletic competitiveness or the business part of the decision, but would they be worthy peers and colleagues to the conference. So there’s a lot a lot to think about going forward. I’m sure it’ll play out in the next few days.”"

South Carolina likely wouldn’t be a frequent opponent of Texas and/or Oklahoma if the SEC does split the conference into four pods of four teams. Even if the conference just expands and realigns the east and west divisions, South Carolina wouldn’t make sense as a divisional foe of these two schools.

Pastides taking this open approach sounds to also be somewhat of the norm as time moves along for the current SEC programs considering the admittance of these two schools.

But it is notable that a program like South Carolina, that could have an even tougher time competing for conference titles with Texas and Oklahoma included, would be willing to take this type of stance. That is a good sign of what could be to come for Texas and Oklahoma in the vote to officially get added to the SEC in the near future.

This is an ongoing storyline that continues to keep at the forefront of the college sports landscape of late. We will continue to monitor it for any upcoming developments in the coming days and weeks.