Maybe they even believe that, though I remain doubtful.
Almost a year later, UT’s and OU’s bombshell decision to leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference is still being felt in the latest round of conference realignment.
After an hourlong panel discussion at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention, [UT Athletic Director Chris] Del Conte and [OU Athletic Director Joe] Castiglione offered no hints on a timeline to exit the Big 12, except to say both schools are committed to remaining in the league until 2025.
“We realize we’ve made a decision and we’re focused on being a great member through the time we said we would,” Castiglione said. “There’s a lot of changing around us. If that facilitates a conversation that needs to take place about an earlier departure, then it does.
“But I said very consistently that, and I know my counterpart Chris Del Conte has said the same thing, as has our presidents, that we informed the Big 12 that we would leave after ’25, but we plan on fulfilling our obligations … And if they want to talk to us about something different then we’ll certainly listen.”
Del Conte offered a similar sentiment.
“We’re going to honor our commitments,” he said. “So, where we’re at, I think those things are all premature. I mean, we’re 45 days out from the start of the season. We’re really focused on the football season this year.”
Incoming Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said at the league’s kickoff event in Arlington last week that “anything is on the table” and that conversations with UT and OU would be forthcoming when he officially begins the job Aug. 1.
Both schools are projected to owe at least $80 million in exit fees if they leave before the expiration of the current media rights deal.
“Any situation like this, I always look for a win-win scenario,” Yormark said. “That being said, it’s important that whatever happens is in the best interest of this conference. But I look forward, at the right time, to have those conversations.”
So the temporarily supersized Big XII is still in play. That’s assuming that the non-UT and OU members aren’t plotting to scoop up some PAC 12 refugees, which may make it easier to wave goodbye to the leavers. I’m totally speculating here. I thought that UT and OU would find their way to the SEC before 2025 before that bombshell dropped – surely, they will very much want to jump the fence as soon as it’s feasible to do so – and I still think that. The mechanics of how they get there may change, but I believe the incentives remain.
For their part, the SEC continues to be coy.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey believes his league got the better deal with the coming additions of Texas and Oklahoma than the Big Ten with its coming additions of UCLA and Southern Cal, based on geography and history.
Sankey, in his opening remarks of the SEC Media Days on Monday, pointed out the UT and OU additions are in “contiguous states.” In other words, league travel only requires crossing a state line, not flying over mountains and deserts.
The Longhorns and Sooners are scheduled to join the SEC by July 2025 but perhaps even a year or two earlier.
“That’s not up to me, that’s about the relationships between Oklahoma and Texas and the Big 12,” Sankey said of when exactly UT and OU are expected to exit the Big 12 and join the SEC. “(Our) focus is on the additions being effective July 1, 2025.”
Again, maybe he believes that. Maybe it’s true, or at least true-ish. You know where I’ve placed my chips.