College football insider details next steps for Big 12 after Oklahoma, Texas leave early

NS_headshot_clearbackgroundby:Nick Schultz•02/09/23•

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In August, Brett Yormark took over as commissioner of the Big 12. He had three goals for his first year in office: Execute a new media rights deal, navigate the departures of Oklahoma and Texas, and expand the league even further.

He checked off goal No. 1 in October. Thursday night, six months after he took over, he crossed off goal No. 2.

Oklahoma and Texas are now leaving the Big 12 in 2024 — one year earlier than expected. As a result, the league will go from 16 teams this coming year back to 14 teams, and Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger reported Yormark and the league will “aggressively pursue” further expansion.

The Big 12 has reportedly had talks with multiple schools as it looks to expand again. Notably, Yormark met with officials from Gonzaga in November and reports said there’s “growing mutual interest” between the two sides.

In the wake of Oklahoma and Texas’ decisions to leave, the Big 12 landed four schools to join the league starting in 2023. Cincinnati, Houston and UCF are all leaving the American Athletic Conference while BYU is coming in from the West Coast Conference. They’ll compete in the Big 12 along with Oklahoma and Texas during the 2023-24 season before the Sooners and Longhorns depart for the SEC.

Oklahoma, Texas reach agreement with Big 12 to join SEC in 2024

Oklahoma and Texas will join the SEC one year earlier than expected. The two schools have reached an agreement with the Big 12 to leave the conference for the SEC in 2024, the Big 12 announced Thursday.

As a result of the agreement, the two teams will owe a combined $100 million to the Big 12, and much of that figure will go to the eight legacy universities to help account for an expected decrease in revenue in 2024.

The Sooners and Longhorns were previously set to join the SEC in 2025, when the Big 12’s media rights contract expires. However, both programs and the Big 12 have come to the mutual decision it would be best to accelerate the transition, which was announced in July 2021.

The move will coincide with several other big changes across college football in 2024. That includes the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams and the additions of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.