Report: Oklahoma, Texas Avoid Costly Financial Hit From Early Move To SEC

Leaving the Big 12 Conference early to join the SEC won't cost Oklahoma and Texas as much as first anticipated, according to a report Friday by the USA TODAY Network.

The move to the Southeastern Conference was at first expected to cost the universities as much as $160 million.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

But in February, the Big 12 announced that Oklahoma and Texas would forgo $100 million from the conference under an agreement that is allowing the schools to leave a year earlier that initially required, according to the report.

"In response to recent questions from the USA TODAY Network, the conference said more than $80 million of that is based on money the schools will not get in 2024-25, the year after the move," the report stated.

"The rest is attributed to cuts in full revenue shares for 2023-24 that Texas, Oklahoma and the rest of the Big 12's continuing members will be taking to finance payments promised to four schools that joined the conference this summer."

According to the USA TODAY Network report, information obtained through open-records requests, interviews and written exchanges with school and conference officials also found that while the Big 12's bylaws called for a withholding of two years' worth of their shares of conference revenue, Oklahoma and Texas have had no money withheld by the conference and they won't in 2023-24.

Additionally, the shares for Oklahoma, Texas and the eight continuing schools are being reduced by roughly $7 million per school compared to what they received in 2022-23 to fund payments of $18 million apiece for this year to new members Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston, according to the report.

The network also reported that Oklahoma and Texas will be getting no money from the SEC's primary revenue sharing pool in 2024-25, according to the schools' entry agreements.

"However, they stand to collect millions through football- and men's basketball-specific distributions that already existed under the SEC's bylaws," the report stated. "They could receive additional money through other specially negotiated terms. And they will get what their agreements describe as 'transition' payments being funded by ESPN."

ESPN, in a statement included in the report, said Texas and Oklahoma "chose to accelerate the process and transition a year earlier" after deciding to to change conferences.

"At that time, the media partners were brought in to reach a resolution that would satisfy all parties for the 2024-25 season," ESPN said in the statement.

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark and Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte were pleased with the arrangement, according to the report. Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione declined to comment.

Kansas State athletics director Gene Taylor told the network the settlement left the athletics directors at some of the continuing Big 12 schools "kind of dumbfounded."

"We fought back as hard as we could," but he said the conference's lawyers advised them, Yormark and the schools' presidents and chancellors that the bylaws were "not as rock-solid as everybody thought and we could be tied up on lawsuits forever."

According to the USA TODAY Network report, the bylaws in place in July 2021 stated that any school withdrawing from the conference would owe a buyout amount equal to the sum of conference revenue shares it would otherwise have received during its final two years in the conference.

In theory, according to the report, this meant Texas and Oklahoma faced the prospect of losing two years' worth of money from the Big 12 -- and under another provision in the bylaws, any withheld money potentially could have been redistributed to other Big 12 schools while UT and OU finished their time in the conference.

That didn't happen. Texas and Oklahoma received full revenue shares from the Big 12 during a fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, according to the conference's federal tax records, the network reported.

Sign up for your premium membership to AllSooners.com today, and get access to the entire Fan Nation premium network!
Follow AllSooners on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest OU news!
Want even more Sooners news? Check out the SI.com OU team page here!
Listen and subscribe to the AllSooners Podcast!
Watch more Sooners videos and subscribe on YouTube!