COLUMN: Amid Awkwardness, Hurt Feelings, An Oklahoma Early Exit from Big 12 Would Be for the Best

Pac-12 schools may have several options, and if joining the Big 12 is one of them, then that opens the door for OU and Texas to leave for the SEC in 2024.

As the Big 12 Conference takes center stage this week, the league’s future — both short-term and long-term — remains cloudier than ever.

Media Days unfold Wednesday and Thursday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, and while there will be plenty of queries about backup quarterbacks and depth charts and culture change and NIL, the Big 12’s undeniable underlying storylines are about membership.

Ten members in 2022. Fourteen in 2023 and 2024. Twelve in 2025.

And that’s just what’s on paper at the moment.

The June 30 bombshell that pushed USC and UCLA into the Big Ten Conference created shockwaves that sent the Big 12 into scramble mode — a proactive hunt, really, which is a nice change of pace considering the league’s quarter century of reactive behavior.

Soon after the news broke that the Pac-12 would lose both of its prime properties in the Los Angeles market, Big 12 leadership read the changing landscape, foresaw the need for additional expansion and went to work finding the next generation of Big 12 schools.

Multiple reports had the Big 12 in the boardroom multiple times during the last two weeks, exploring a partnership with university representatives from Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.

No transactions occurred, and it seems nothing is imminent after what was basically a fact-finding mission on the part of both the schools and the Big 12. The SEC and the Big Ten’s move to 16 members, however, give the Big 12 reason to believe more expansion is necessary, and this time, the Big 12 acted quickly.

Those expansion plans hit a potential roadblock when it was reported last week that the Pac-12 and the ACC are discussing a TV partnership that would reanimate the floundering Pac-12 Network and fortify the new-and-growing ACC Network — and likely leave the Big 12 as an expansion bridesmaid.

What this all means for Oklahoma (and Texas) is the possibility of an earlier departure for the Southeastern Conference.

With their media rights contractually obligated to the Big 12 through the 2024-25 academic year, Oklahoma and Texas have roughly 40 million reasons to stick around the Big 12 for another year. But that buyout, significant as it sounds, would be negated within two or three years by new money from the SEC — and, in Texas’ case, ESPN still owes UT some $160 million for the Longhorn Network.

Money isn’t a leash that can hold the Sooners and Longhorns.

For now, as the Pac-12 desperately tries to stay afloat, its members are no doubt considering their options. Do they stay with a regional footprint, perhaps adding a Boise State or San Diego State, and form a lucrative scheduling alliance with the ACC? Do they recommit to each other and then try to pluck any Big 12 members who might be getting cold feet over the league’s constantly shifting membership? Or do they break formation, declare every school for themselves and splinter off into the shelters of the Big 12 and Big Ten?

Oklahoma fans eager to get to the SEC should be rooting for another round of Big 12 expansion — and the sooner the better.

If the Big 12 is able to grow again and reel in any Pac-12 schools, that would placate some of the Big 12 angst over losing two flagship athletic departments, and that should allow them to let OU and Texas leave year early — summer of 2024.

Feelings in the Big 12 have been hurt for going on a year now. As long as everyone gets what they’re owed, another round of Big 12 expansion would facilitate an OU and Texas departure in 2024, and that would be good for everyone.

In both words and deeds, last summer’s news has created awkwardness and embarrassment. When OU and Texas played for the national championship in softball, for instance, no one from the Big 12 office was in Oklahoma City representing the league. When OU and Texas brass met with other league members at Big 12 spring meetings in June, Bob Bowlsby said they sat together in the boardroom “because we had to.”

If the Big 12 expands again, it would create the perfect opportunity for an amicable divorce. Best to move on as soon as possible.