Big 12 Commissioner ‘Open’ to Texas, Oklahoma Leaving for SEC Early

The Longhorns and Sooners are currently scheduled to join the league on July 1, 2025.

In a football sense, Texas and Oklahoma are currently halfway through the four-year period between their acceptance and accession to the SEC.

That timeline, however, could still potentially be moved up. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told reporters Saturday afternoon that he is "open" to the Longhorns and Sooners leaving early.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark: Texas and Oklahoma still in the league til 2025 right now, but, if they express an interest in leaving in ‘24 and it works for all stakeholders, “I’m open to it.”

— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) January 7, 2023

Yormark made his remarks two days before the Big 12's TCU is slated to play the SEC’s Georgia in the national championship. Neither Texas nor Oklahoma has won a game in the College Football Playoff's nine-year existence.

Previous reporting from The Action Network and The Athletic indicated in mid-December that the two sides were negotiating the terms of an early exit. If the Longhorns and Sooners joined the league in time for the 2024 football season, the SEC’s expansion would line up with both USC and UCLA’s arrival in the Big Ten and the advent of a 12-team College Football Playoff.

As things currently stand, Texas and Oklahoma are scheduled to formally join the conference on July 1, 2025—nearly four years after both schools’ board of regents voted to leave the Big 12 for the SEC on July 30, 2021.