Big 12 finally repents, Texas football and OU are leaving for SEC in 2024

The big news that we were all waiting on finally came down on the evening of Feb. 9 with the announcement that Texas football and the Oklahoma Sooners will be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC in 2024. This announcement came via an official release from the Big 12 conference on Feb. 9.

This news is arriving just after it looked like some of the hopes that the Longhorns and Sooners would be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC before 2025 were dashed. As recently as last week, it looked as if Fox was going to shoot down any hopes and/or expectations that the Longhorns and Sooners would be able to leave the Big 12 before 2025 as it wanted to likely get more money out of each school before the SEC move could officially take place.

Here’s more on what the official release from the Big 12 had to say on the matter of the conference reaching a deal with Texas and Oklahoma to leave before 2025.

Texas football and OU will be able to join the SEC in 2024

"The Big 12 announces that the Conference has agreed in principle to terms with the University of Oklahoma and The University of Texas at Austin to leave the Conference following the 2023-24 athletic year, one year earlier than originally announced, subject to final approval from the OU and UT governing Boards. Compensation to the Conference for the early withdrawals of the two schools totals $100 million in foregone distributable revenues, which OU and UT will be able to partially offset with future revenues."

Once the 2023-24 academic/athletic calendar year is done, Texas and Oklahoma will be able to officially join the SEC. That means that the 2023 football season will be the last for Texas and Oklahoma to compete

in the Big 12.

It sounds like the two schools were able to reach a deal with the TV networks and the Big 12 to be able to get this early exit to the SEC in 2024. The official release from the Big 12 mentions a total of $100 million in foregone revenue for both schools.

This is probably for the best for Texas and Oklahoma to be able to leave the Big 12 as early as possible, especially with the weird arrangement that will take place during the 2023 football season. Texas and Oklahoma will be competing with the four new additions to the Big 12 in 2023, including the BYU Cougars, Houston Cougars, UCF Knights, and Cincinnati Bearcats.