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Report: OU, Texas Will Not Renew Big 12 Media Contracts, Will Petition SEC for Membership

After reports Wednesday that the Sooner and Longhorns were looking at joining the SEC, WFAA reports that both schools will initiate more formal procedures next week.

John E. Hoover

A report out of Dallas on Wednesday night supports rumors and earlier reports that Oklahoma and Texas are looking to get out of the Big 12 Conference.

Jason Whitely, senior reporter at DFW television station WFAA, tweeted that OU and Texas will send a letter to the Big 12 early next week stating that neither school intends to renew their current media contracts when they expire in 2025, and that both schools will then petition the Southeastern Conference for membership.

The Houston Chronicle reported earlier Wednesday that OU and Texas had “reached out” to the SEC about joining the league and that an announcement could be coming “within a couple of weeks.”

Oklahoma issued a tepid statement, while Oklahoma State followed suit with a more forceful sentiment, saying it would be “gravely disappointed” if the Chronicle report was true.

The Big 12’s grant-of-rights — the contract that binds members’ broadcast rights to the conference if a school leaves for another league — and its existing television rights deals expire after the 2024-25 academic year.

It seems likely, however, that if OU and Texas wanted out of the Big 12, they could make it happen sooner than 2025.

SI’s Pat Forde said on the Yahoo! Sports College Podcast last week that the Big 12 tried to initiate talks to renegotiate with its TV partners recently, but the networks declined.

While the grant-of-rights and long-term TV contracts created unity and stability back in 2012-13, the league getting shut down by its network partners may have created an environment in which big players like Oklahoma and Texas felt the need to keep an eye on the horizon.

It probably didn't help that Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby last week didn't exactly express support for OU athletic director Joe Castiglione's "bitter disappointment" over the Sooners' 11 a.m. kickoff with Nebraska on Sept. 18, a commemoration of the 1971 "Game of the Century" that Castiglione has been planning for nearly a decade.

While the SEC has won the college football national championship 11 times in the last 15 years, it's also an attractive conference financially. 

In May, the Big 12 announced a revenue split of $34.5 million per school, or $345 million, down for the second straight year — this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of championships such as the NCAA basketball tournaments. The shortfall of about $50 million was also due to loss of football inventory during the 2020 season, with fewer games to broadcast. The conference also didn’t land a team in the College Football Playoff.

Meanwhile the SEC in February announced per-school revenue distribution of about $45.5 million, or $637.7 million, for fiscal year 2019-2020. SEC schools averaged $44.6 million in 2018-19.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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