Texas/OU talking to SEC about joining

[MDUte]

Houston Chronicle reporting that both Texas and Oklahoma are talking with the SEC about joining. Anyone seeing this? Saw a tweet from George Kliavkoff that said, “only on the job for a month and didn’t think things could get any more interesting…”. Is this serious, the potential demise of the Big 12 finally?

Pac-12 hoops will be fun when the conference picks up Kansas and Baylor from the ashes of the Big-12. Football? Not so much. https://t.co/3XwkEXQVAr

— Dan Sorensen (@DSorensen) July 21, 2021

[GameForAnyFuss]

If this were to happen, what should the PAC12 do? Snag two of the Texas schools (i.e. Baylor and TT)?

[MDUte]

Or does Kliavkoff make an alternative pitch to Texas/OU about joining? I’m sure with both, the PAC could get top $ for a renegotiated media contract. If not Texas/OU, I would think Baylor/TCU would be non-starters for the same reasons as BYU…not going to bring in a religious school. Texas Tech, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Houston, and UNLV would be on the short list of potential targets in my mind.

[Central Coast Ute]

Personally, I’d rather grab Houston over TTU and I don’t think Baylor with its religious affiliation will fit with the PAC 12. OSU or ISU might be good fits but you want more Texas schools so maybe TTU and Houston?
Sorry for rambling, just thinking out loud.

[UteFanatic]

If TX and OU bolted for the SEC, the Pac should take the 4 best remaining B12 teams. That would essentially render the B12 impotent for the next round of TV negotiations. The P12 picking up some eyeballs from the central time zone is exactly what this conference needs.

[2008 National Champ]

Oklahoma isn’t going anywhere without Oklahoma State and Texas Tech is probably going to be attached to Texas. All of those are state schools and the legislatures would get involved, especially the alumni from the schools that would be left out.

All of the changes in the last round of relocation involved schools that did not have a partner like West Virginia, TCU, Utah, Texas A&M, etc. This next round will be interesting as there will be a lot of hard conversations involving schools that do not have the same resources or reputation but are currently considered a package deal.

[UteFanatic]

The more I think about this, the more I think this may just be UT and OU posturing for an increased share of revenue.

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

No. Grab Texas Tech and TCU. No way they add a super conservative religious school like Baylor. TCU’s a better pick up because they’re in the gigatic Dallas-Fort Worth media market and they add football.

[Central Coast Ute]

Maybe the TDS will finally get that Big 12 invite!

[Duhwayne]

You know that’s all the deluded fools are talking about. Smoke!

[Stone]

I may be crazy, but if UT and OU go to the SEC, I would not want the Pac12 to add anyone. In my mind, adding the Big12 leftovers is not an alpha move, and it does not really add value (I would argue it somewhat diminishes value). The Big12 leftovers can invite Boise State, Houston, SMU, Rice, or BYU and do their best from there. 

I would add that if the SEC and Pac12 both invite UT and OU, I don’t think the Pac12 stands much of a chance. The SEC is the king of football. It has the best teams and the most money (by far). The only reason for them to go Pac12 would be if they worried about getting lost in the SEC (in terms of prestige)

[Stone]

The other point I would make is that any additions to the east of Salt Lake City will push Utah to an eastern division of the Pac12. This would mean road trips to Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma instead of California, Oregon, and Washington. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas are all fine places, but between the two, the choice is easy for me.

[CB]

Couldn’t agree with you more Stone

[utefansince79]

I prefer keeping the PAC at 12 teams.  In football we get to play most teams each year (skipping the Wash/Ore schools twice each 8 year cycle and alternating between Cal and Stanford) and play everyone in basketball (twice for most teams, play 2 teams just once).  Add in a bunch more teams and we’re looking at many years between football games against some teams (remember the 16-team WAC where we could potentially go 6 years without playing a rival?)

 

 

[Central Coast Ute]

I get your point and I agree. I’ve heard some talking heads in the past saying they expect college football will end with 4 power conferences of 16 teams each. Notre Dame may have to join the ACC or maybe they can be the 65th power team. If they are right, and UT and OU go to the SEC, the PAC 12 will need to add four teams at some point anyway. Might as well pick the best before they go elsewhere.

[MDUte]

I would prefer to stay at 12 as well for the reasons stated above. However, I agree that if the SEC makes a move to go to 16 and it includes Texas/OU, the dominos will all fall and the move to 4 super conferences will happen. Big 10 will add Kansas and Iowa St since these are the only 2 remaining AAU credited universities. ACC will add West Virginia and Notre Dame.

And the PAC will need to add the best 4 remaining schools. I’m not sure those should all be Big 12. PAC Presidents will likely not allow private religious schools such as TCU & Baylor join. Central Time Zone and Texas schools makes sense with Texas Tech and Houston. Oklahoma State is likely on the list. But I could also see UNLV being included since they are in the footprint with lots of growth potential.

[MDUte]

The one outlier for me is what happens with Texas and their Longhorn Network. I don’t see them being willing to discard it to join another league. And I also don’t see the SEC or any other conference allowing Texas to come in and push their weight around like they do in the Big 12 to keep it and get a disproportionate share of the conference revenues.

[Central Coast Ute]

Which is why as someone stated above, this could just be a power grab by OU and UT to get a bigger revenue share from the Big 12. I have to admit, it makes sense.

[Waybackutefan]

It could also be some turd stirring to get clicks

[PhiladelphiaUte]

The BigTen might consider poaching Mizzou before adding Kansas.  And since the BigTen pays more, Mizzou would be wise to consider it.  Plus “academically”, “culturally”, and “competitively” I think they’d be better fit in the BigTen than they currently are in the SEC.

Let Kansas join the MWC.

[Charlie]

If the P5s for their own subdivision the symmetry of 4 super conferences of 16 make so much sense for playoffs and for scheduling in general that can be the same across the subdivision. At some point I would think they would look to create fairness in scheduling and at the same time improve the quality of the inventory of 12 annual games. Imagine a football season where every single week 100% of the P5 teams are playing other P5 teams. Would that not be most desired by TV audiences? Maybe 11 quality games with 1 G5 warmup game for each. That would be a 20% to 25% improvement across the board in quality.

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

I completely disagree that the other teams in the Big 12 add nothing. TCU is in the Dallas-Fort Worth media market. That’s a GIGANTIC media market. Kansas/Kansas State are part of the huge Kansas City media market. Oklahoma State is part of the Oklahoma City market. The only one who isn’t in a huge media market is Texas Tech. However, they’re also likely the best academic school among those listed sans Kansas. Besides, I think Kansas and Iowa State would rather be in the Big Ten and the Big Ten would want them because every school in the Big Ten is a member of the AAU. Iowa State and Kansas are the only other two AAU schools who would be left, and they make the most sense for the Big Ten to add because the Iowa-ISU rivalry would become a conference game and they would get Kansas’s basketball.

[Duhwayne]

Would it be funny if Michael Young voted no?

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-football/news/texas-oklahoma-sec-big-12-college-football-super-conference/187ywhuubxqlb1mkkkn1e0obkn

[tarheelute]

My A&M friend’s take.

The Houston Chronicle broke this story, specifically, Texas A&M beat writer, Brent Zwerneman.
And it was broken on the very day A&M was appearing in Birmingham, just in time for them to speak to the largest media assembly of the year.
That’s awfully convenient, don’t you think?

So this feels like a targeted intentional leak as opposed to a story that just happened to break coincidentally.
Which brings us to the next question: was this a targeted leak designed to make Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC more or less likely?
My read here would be the leak was designed to make it less likely.

Keeping a story like this quiet until the last possible moment is the best way to make a move like this happen.
Leaking a story such as this allows political pressure and opposition time to organize. Silence is the asset of the stealthy move.

The Big12 schools current media contract runs through the 2025 season. Those schools signed a Grant of Rights; which means if you leave, you owe us money for the existing years of the contract.
The longhorn network contract runs through 2031.

SEC Bylaw 3.1 states that the conference can only extend an invite if 3/4 of the existing members vote to extend an invite for membership.
That means 11 of the 14 SEC schools would have to vote ‘yes’; which means only 4 have to vote ‘No’.
A&M, Missouri, and Arkansas are guaranteed ‘No’ votes. Georgia, SoCar, Florida, and Kentucky have stated that they want to be the sole SEC school in their state; they know A&M feels the same.
LSU? …. not sure how they would vote.

The long & short of it is that this leak coming out is not good for OU or tu. It certainly damages the Big12 when your two flagship programs are courting other conference affiliation.
T. Boone Pickens, OkSt alum and one of the wealthiest men in America, may have something to say about the Sooners attempting to leave their in-state rival at the altar.

I’ll go on record right now and state that *IF* this move were to happen (and it’s a massive IF), the soonest it could possibly happen is 2025.
If you’re asking me what I think happens? … I think the Pac12 just saw a massive opportunity to expand eastward and grab-name big schools (tu, TxTech, OU, OkSt) and get into the Central time zone.

[krindor]

Agree in general; don’t think it likely happens to the SEC, but the scorched earth could enable the PAC12 to move in.

T Boone Pickens probably has no strong feelings on the matter though, given that he died 2 years ago

[MDUte]

Is your A&M friend Clay Travis? Cause it’s word for word out of his article that @ProudUte posted earlier on a duplicate Topic.
Clay Travis article

[tarheelute]

No – Not Clay Davis. But I would not be surprised that my A&M Grad friend cut and pasted, cobbled together a bunch of articles into the email back to me. I don’t think he intended to plagiarize, but simply pass on to me, what he read and incorporated as his “take”, and that I posted to this blog.

[MDUte]

makes sense….no worries. 

[Dresden_Stormblessed]

What I am not sure about is if we ditch any current PAC-12 schools and try to pull others in.

I care less about geography pairing (OSU and OU, U and Colorado, ASU UoA, etc.) I care more about competition and elevating the bar of the conference and growing through money and championships.

Perfect world, we’d get both UT and OU and ditch UofA and someone else but I get that may not make sense.

Why doesn’t the SEC ditch their irrelevant teams? Vanderbilt and Arkansas aren’t even close to being relevant or competitive anymore right? Is it because they’re close and there’s history?

[EagleMountainUte]

I already don’t spend a lot of my time supporting college athletics. If this happens I am probably done. Just color me bored with it all. I will probably watch Utah play but this just ruins the whole equal opportunity of it all. I felt like Utah had a chance to be champs in the past but this is the final nail in the coffin for college athletics.

[Central Coast Ute]

Yeah I thought about TCU and even SMU due to being in DFW, but from what I gather, the California schools don’t like private, religious schools. Although if I had to bet on it, I’m sure they’d make an exception for Notre Dame if they had the chance.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Neither Baylor, TCU, nor SMU are Tier-1 Research institutions.  I would think that we’d add Tx Tech plus either Oklahoma St, Houston, SDSU, or UNLV.

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