There’s finally a light at the end of the Oklahoma-and-Texas-to-the-SEC tunnel.
And it’s not a freight train about to run everyone over.
Wednesday night, the Big 12 announced that the conference had agreed to split with OU and Texas a year early. Contractually, they were bound to remain in the Big 12 until July 1, 2025, but now, they will be allowed to leave for the SEC a year early.
The cost of their early exit: $100 million.
It’s the divorce decree everyone needed.
It wasn’t in anyone’s best interest to have the Sooners and the Longhorns remain in the Big 12 until 2025, but it also wasn’t going to be a great deal for them to join later this year.
That was a possibility, by the way, that they would head for the SEC this summer.
But it would’ve been a mess.
Schedules have already been set, namely in football, and while they could’ve been changed, it would’ve been chaos.
We know they could’ve been changed, both in the Big 12 and the SEC, because schools did such things at the drop of the hat during the pandemic. Some games were scheduled in a matter of days back then.
But that’s not optimal operating procedure. Not for the teams of course, but it’s really less than ideal for the campuses and the college communities. A million things get scheduled around football games every fall. Some get scheduled for football weekends while some get scheduled to avoid them.
If the Big 12 and SEC found themselves re-drawing their fall football schedules right now, it’d cause wailing and gnashing of teeth the likes of which haven’t often been seen this side of hadestown.
The Red River rivals splitting from the Big 12 two years early would’ve also cost them dearly. This current agreement says they’ll pay the conference a combined $100 million, and according to the Big 12, that will come in the form of “foregone distributable revenues, which OU and UT will be able to partially offset with future revenues.”
More: Texas, Oklahoma reach agreement with Big 12 to leave for SEC in 2024
More:SEC shows slight – and likely temporary – revenue decline in 2022: What it means
That means revenue-sharing payouts the schools would’ve received from the Big 12 this year and next year will instead count against their total bill.
Had they left after this year, they would’ve had a bigger buyout to pay and less revenue sharing to use against the total.
That’s a good thing for the financial stability of both schools. The Horns seem to have coffers deeper than the heart of Texas, but the Sooners aren’t quite as flush with cash. They aren’t cash-strapped, but let’s say leaving this year would’ve meant each school was on the hook for $100 million. Paying that kind of bill would’ve tough on OU.
Now, the total is smaller and the terms of payment are longer.
Win-win for OU.
But this is a win-win for the Big 12, too.
No way the remaining teams wanted to deal with the will-they-won’t-they drama for an extra year. It’s been an unknown hanging over everything, and while it’s a hassle for fans and media and such, it’s a wreck for the conference’s decision makers.
All sorts of things become tough. Even having league meetings is tricky. Who gets to be in the room when decisions are made? Who gets all the information? Who only gets some of it because, well, they might go tell the SEC and use it against the Big 12?
No one in the Big 12 wanted to have to do that any longer than necessary.
But they also didn’t want to let the Sooners and the Horns go for nothing. A $100 million buyout means each of the 12 remaining league schools will get about $8 million.
Hardly chump change.
Listen, I’m sure not everyone is totally pleased with this separation. Some of the remaining Big 12 schools might’ve wanted more money. OU and Texas no doubt wanted to pay less and probably leave earlier. But in compromises, no one gets everything they want. In divorces, no one gets everything they want.
But this split is for the best.
Everyone takes a bit of a hit, but there’s no freight train coming to run anyone over.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlson_ok.
