Report: OU, Texas Could Still Potentially Leave the Big 12 a Year Early

The story for the past year or so has been that in order to avoid a big fee, Oklahoma and Texas would wait until the end of the Big 12’s media rights deal before jumping ship to the SEC, but that might not end up being the case.

Among the factors that could push OU and Texas toward the door before the original date include the Big 12 signing a new media rights deal, the Big Ten adding USC and UCLA in 2024, a 12-team playoff being implemented in 2024 and the four new programs entering the Big 12 in 2023.

Like everything though, it sounds like it’s still going to come down to the almighty dollar:

Big 12 bylaws require Oklahoma and Texas to pay an exit fee the sum of the league’s distribution for two years — which is about $84 million per school, sources said. Historically, when a school leaves a conference, that exit fee is negotiated down to about 60%, meaning OU and Texas could possibly get out for about $50 million each.

OU, Texas and the Big 12 have been involved in discussions for months but still have not reached a final agreement on the schools’ buyout amount, sources said.

[Brett McMurphy]

Regardless of whether OU-Texit happens in 2024 or 2025, the Big 12 is set to have 14 teams in 2023 with the addition of UCF, Houston, BYU and Cincinnati. But after that, the conference realignment we’ve been talking about for two years could get jumpstarted.