Some of Us Told You Texas, Oklahoma Would Join Family Sooner

It's official now and Razorbacks fans have someone they can really hate now

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Feb 11, 2023 4:39 PM EST
Original:
Feb 9, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The announcement from the SEC on Thursday evening shouldn't really be that surprising.

There are some of us who have been saying all along Texas and Oklahoma would be coming to the league before the 2025 date and now it is official.

The news came at the same time Disney, the parent company of the SEC's television partner ESPN, announced they were laying off 7,000 people and that certainly was going to include some more folks at the biggest brand in sports broadcasting.

That early date never sounded right from a logic standpoint. Especially after the Big 12 added four teams and added them to the 2023 football schedule without OU and Texas getting a vote.

At that point it was clear everyone was done with each other. It was kinda like agreeing to a divorce, then deciding to put up with each other for three full years.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that wasn't going to work. In the world of sports, contracts are merely the starting point for negotiations to break the things anyway.

No final details were announced by the Big 12 in their announcement and the most interesting details in the press release were nearly at the bottom:

"The terms reached today are the byproduct of the Conference members working toward a resolution that provides stability for all involved. Details will continue to be finalized among all parties."

For the Hogs and their fans, now they have a border rival that everybody will be on board hating.

For several years, officials in the Arkansas athletics department have tried to convince us there's a rivalry with Missouri, but nobody in the state has been buying into that.

Since joining the SEC in 1992, the Hogs have had a couple of years being rivals with the same team, but nobody really likes Alabama or LSU but it's nothing like Texas.

Now the bet is Oklahoma is going to come close that pretty soon. There are literally places across Arkansas where Hog fans and Sooner fans live next door to each other and a lot of that is up in the northwest part of the state.

The UA campus sits just over 25 miles from the Oklahoma state line. Fort Smith is on the border and it doesn't even take long from Texarkana to find yourself straddling Oklahoma and Texas.

Let the hype begin because after this year there will be a whole new way to look at the SEC.

And Razorback athletics director Hunter Yurachek has an entirely new problem that he's probably already been exploring trying to juggle all the new schedules.