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Oklahoma and Texas have officially applied to join the SEC. This story rocked the college football world this week, and it is expected to effect every power five conferences.
SEC commish Greg Sankey statement on adding OU & Texas pic.twitter.com/JZbm1fHGvk
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 27, 2021
How this happened
Somehow this story was kept quiet throughout SEC Media Days. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey kept this shocking move under wraps for at least a year. The rumors began to swirl heading into the weekend, and now it is official.
SEC Network’s Chris Doering talks about the SEC keeping this story a secret.
The BIG12 tried to keep Texas and Oklahoma, but it seemed the universities both had their minds made up.
Also, SEC Network’s Mike Morgan talks about Greg Sankey working with BIG-12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby on expanding the playoff as he is in talks with Texas and Oklahoma.
Many people think this was a straight cash grab by Oklahoma and Texas. However, Morgan said it is more of a power play.
What will happen to the other conferences?
Texas and Oklahoma leaving will certainly cause a domino effect throughout the rest of the conferences. First, the BIG10 could look to add Kansas and Iowa State. Then, the ACC could try for West Virginia and Notre Dame. This could create three 16-team super conferences with the PAC-12 and BIG-12 left to pick up the pieces. The PAC-12 could also become a 16-team conference, but there haven’t been as many rumors connecting teams to the conference.
Mike Morgan talks about conference realignment.
Overall, we could see four 16-team conferences and each conference winner represented in the college football playoff.
How Texas and Oklahoma will reshape the SEC
It is believed by many that the SEC will reimagine its scheduling process when Texas and Oklahoma join. The current East-West division format is expected to be done away with and will be replaced with four-team pods.
Chris Doering talks about the SEC’s future scheduling.
The hope behind the pods idea is every SEC team will play each other more often. Some rivalries may not be every year, but overall there will be more diversity in scheduling.
Oklahoma and Texas’ media contracts run out in 2025. There could be a chance the SEC buys them out of the conference to get the teams in sooner.
