Texas To SEC Soon? Officials Discussing Adding Longhorns To Schedule

According to Saturday Down South, the SEC is discussing scheduling with the intent of adding Oklahoma and Texas in the future

As the SEC prepares for the arrival of Texas and Oklahoma, the question remains what will happen to the divisions and expansion. Will Commissioner Greg Sankey simply added the Sooners to the SEC East and Texas to the West? Perhaps vice versa? 

More specifically, what can be made of the Longhorns and Sooners joining the conference in the coming years. As of now, it appears Sankey is preparing for a sooner expansion than initially thought. 

According to a report from Saturday Down South, the schools at the SEC Meetings in Destin, Fla. are discussing future scheduling formats with the intent of adding both Texas and Oklahoma to the conversation. The Longhorns and Sooners did not send representatives as part of the 2022 meetings due to their prior commitment to the Big 12. 

Sankey spoke earlier this month on potentially eliminating divisions altogether and focusing in on the best teams making it to the SEC Championship. Another thought process would be for the league to move to four pods instead of divisions of eight. 

Sources: OU and Texas have been part of the #SEC schedule format discussions, and will continue “to be part of those conversations.”

OU and Texas do not have reps here in Destin at SEC spring meetings.

— Matt Hayes (@MattHayesCFB) May 31, 2022

"Well, almost a year-long conversation when we got to 16 teams, what divisions will look like or what our schedule will look like,” Sankey said Tuesday. “Those possibilities include no divisions. It’s on our list. We’re not going to do it in a knee-jerk way. The divisions work really well for us, but when we got to 16, that possibility is front-and-center for the SEC. Unless the sentiment of our league changes greatly, the division format works, and when we go to 16, that would be the time for an adjustment.”  

According to multiple reports, the conference is arguing about the status of the impending schedule once the two schools arrive. Currently, the two plans in motion would be an eight-game schedule with only one permanent opponent and seven rotational opponents or a nine-game schedule with three permanent opponents and six rotational opponents each season. 

The Longhorns made the move to the SEC along with Oklahoma in hopes of keeping the Red River Showdown alive in college football's top conference. Should the league invest in only one permanent opponent, depending on the structure of a division or pod system, a Texas vs. Texas A&M yearly matchup would not be a guarantee

The two schools are expected to join the SEC no later than 2025, but things could be changing with the recent moves in the Big 12. BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston all will now join the conference in 2023, thus bringing the total to 14 teams for two years if the two schools remain through their current contracts. 

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