Texas A&M wants to avoid Texas football if SEC breaks into pods?

As some of the big names surrounding the university’s athletic program continue to tour around the state this month, the impending move for Texas football and the Oklahoma Sooners to leave the Big 12 for the SEC hit the headlines once again late this week. In the midst of the Texas Fight Tour, the likes of athletic director Chris del Conte and head football coach Steve Sarkisian were asked about the impending move for the school (along with the rival Sooners) to leave the Big 12 for the greener pastures of the SEC.

The question of how the SEC will form its divisions once the Longhorns and Sooners are officially added came up during the Texas Fight Tour this week. And the common school of thought seemingly continues to be that the SEC will break into pods (likely consisting of four teams in each) upon the official move for Texas and Oklahoma to join the conference.

According to a report from 247Sports this week (paid content), the SEC could be planning out a four-pod division system once the time arrives for Texas and Oklahoma to join the mix.

What’s interesting about the way that these pods could be formed, though, is the fact that the Texas A&M Aggies are probably going to want to avoid the Longhorns. The thought here seems to be that the SEC could do Texas A&M a favor and place Texas and even possibly Oklahoma in a different pod since the Aggies didn’t want these two to join the conference in the first place.

Texas A&M working to avoid Texas football and even OU if the SEC splits into pods?

If this were the situation that plays out where Texas and Texas A&M aren’t in the same division/pod in the SEC, that would mean the Lone Star Showdown would happen essentially happen on a biannual basis. In a situation where the Longhorns and Aggies do wind up in the same division/pod, that would obviously mean they face each other annually on the gridiron.

Moreover, this still looks to be more of speculation that is gaining steam instead of any concrete plan that is publicly forming by the SEC administration. Until there is a set timeline for the Longhorns and Sooners to leave the Big 12 for the SEC, this particular discussion will continue to mostly be speculation instead of fact.

All in all, it looks as if the back and forth between the Longhorns and Aggies will continue without any actual football game on the schedule for the next year or so at least. For the time being, we will continue to follow the developing timeline for Texas and Oklahoma to actually make the move to officially leave the Big 12 for the SEC.

The current timeline is shaping up to be that Texas and Oklahoma could join the SEC as soon as 2023 (but that looks less likely as time moves along). More realistically, Texas and Oklahoma could join the SEC in 2024 or 2025.