The Texas Longhorns have formally requested to join the NCAA Southeastern Conference (SEC), a controversial action within the college football community and beyond.
Texas sent a joint letter Tuesday with fellow Big 12 Conference team the Oklahoma Sooners to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, requesting invitations to join the SEC effective July 1, 2025, as reported by the Associated Press.
"Guess this means Texas A&M won the breakup," State Rep. Brooks Landgraf, a confirmed Aggie, tweeted Thursday, reacting to speculation on the now official move by the University of Texas (UT) team. The Aggies formerly played in the Big 12 with the UT Longhorns until their own move to the SEC in 2012.
The letter followed a statement issued by the Big 12 Conference on Monday that the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma would not renew their contracts granting media rights to the Big 12 when they expire June 30, 2025. In a joint statement, both institutions stated they plan to honor Big 12's current "grants of rights," the broadcasting rights for college football and men's basketball.
The Big 12 Executive Committee, consisting of Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, Big 12 Board of Directors Chairman and Texas Tech University President Lawrence Schovanec, and Baylor University President Linda Livingstone, met Sunday with University of Texas President Jay Hartzell and Oklahoma University President Joseph Harroz Jr. to discuss topics of shared interest, according to a Big 12 statement issued Sunday.
“Although our eight members are disappointed with the decisions of these two institutions, we recognize that intercollegiate athletics is experiencing rapid change and will most likely look much different in 2025 than it does currently,” Bowlsby said Monday in the statement. "The remaining eight institutions will work together in a collaborative manner to thoughtfully and strategically position the Big 12 Conference for continued success, both athletically and academically, long into the future.”
The decision by the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners, which has been rumored for at least a week but is now official, stirred up a lot of discussion in both states.
"This action was strategic, deliberate, and results from months of planning with the SEC," Oklahoma State University President Kayse Shrum wrote Monday on Twitter. "These conversations, which developed over a long period, are a clear breach of the Big 12 Conference bylaws and broke the decades-long bond of trust between our universities. It is difficult to understand how an Oklahoma institution of higher education would follow the University of Texas to the detriment of the state of Oklahoma."
According to the Big 12's bylaws, a school wanting to leave the conference must give 18-months notice and pay a "buyout fee." This fee comes from what would have been media rights money the conference could have received. It is estimated Oklahoma would have to pay over $80 million, The Oklahoman reported.
Texas A&M, which had a century-long rivalry with UT that cooled off after its own move to the SEC, strongly opposes its Lone Star archnemesis joining the power conference.
"We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas," Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork told KVUE TV sports anchor Jeff Jones last week before the official announcement. "There's a reason why Texas A&M left the Big 12, to be stand-alone, to have our own identity, and that's our feeling."
The Aggies' Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher had a similar early reaction.
"Be careful what you ask for when you jump in this league," Fisher said last week on SEC Network's Paul Finebaum Show.
The decision has even garnered the attention of Texas legislators, some calling for state action.
"The lack of transparency by our flagship institution is wrong," State Rep. Jeff Leach tweeted Thursday. "Such a monumental economic and educational decision impacting the entire state must not be made in a bubble on the forty acres, working on legislation requiring legislative approval for UT to bolt the [Big 12]."