Texas And Oklahoma To Attend SEC League Meetings As Conference Expansion Awaits
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All eyes are fixated on 2024 in Austin and Norman as Texas and Oklahoma shake hands to depart the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. All that is happening in front of the cameras.
Behind closed doors, both programs are already laying down the groundwork to make the transition with ease.
The Sooners and Longhorns will both be represented this year at the annual SEC meetings in Destin, Fla. Oklahoma and Texas still have a year remaining on their current contracts before leaving for the SEC on July 1, 2024.
“We welcome for the first time in Destin representatives from Oklahoma and Texas, who are really observers,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a visit with a small group of reporters on Monday night, per The Houston Chronicle. “They’ll (later) be participants and not just observers under our bylaws (and) will have a vote when membership is fully active, and that happens July 1, 2024.”
Texas will be represented by school president Jay Hartzell and athletic director Chris Del Conte, along with several other high-ranking officials. It has yet to be announced which officials from Oklahoma will be in attendance alongside the current 14 reigning schools.
Neither Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian nor Sooners coach Brent Venables will be in attendance as their priorities are set on winning a conference title before departing the Big 12. Texas has the best preseason odds to win the conference for the first since 2009 at +125. Oklahoma, which finished 6-7 under the first-year Venables, currently has the second-best odds at +325.
While the Sooners and Longhorns will attend all meetings, the two programs won't have a say on the immediate proposal changes, including how many conference football games the SEC will play beginning in 2024 and how to determine tiebreakers once divisions are scrapped. Seven teams each call the SEC East and West home, though with the addition of two new teams, it's expected that the conference will move to a more open spectrum.
This isn't the first time a conference has gotten rid of divisions. Last season, the ACC announced that it would dissolve the Atlantic and Coastal divisions and instead move to a 3-3-5 format, where each team would have three permanent rivals starting in 2023. The Big 12 tossed division out the window following the departures of Nebraska, Missouri and Texas A&M in 2011.
Last offseason, the Pac-12 and Mountain West also elected to eliminate divisions for the 2023 season. The Big Ten is currently dictating what to do with its divisions once west coast expanders USC and UCLA arrive in 2024.
As for scheduling, the hot button of conversation seems to be if the SEC will adopt either an eight- or nine-game format once Texas and Oklahoma join the conference next summer. Currently, SEC teams play all six members of their respective divisions, one permanent cross-division rival and a rotating opponent from the opposing division.
Should school presidents vote for an eight-game format, the outcome for scheduling would be a 1-7 format, where teams face one annual opponent and have seven rotating league games. Should the vote be for nine games, programs will follow the 3-6 format with three yearly opponents and six rotating league games.
Sankey told reporters it's not his job to give thoughts on what model he prefers and plans on leaving the decision up to the voters during their stay in Destin. Unlike last year's league meetings, a decision will be made before leaving the Sunshine State as the conference must begin planning its schedule for the arrival of the two schools.
Should the league follow a one-game annual opponent, Texas would face Oklahoma as part of the annual Red River Showdown at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, while the Aggies would pair up with LSU. In a nine-game conference schedule, the Longhorns' three rivals would be Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas A&M.
As for Texas A&M, its projected trio of rivals include Texas, LSU and Mississippi State, taking away the annual Southwest Classic against Arkansas. The Razorbacks and Aggies have met at AT&T Stadium each season since 2014, and will remain there through the current contract ending in 2024.
Both Texas and Texas A&M have made it clear they hope the league moves to a nine-game format in the future, meaning the former Big 12 rivals would face off annually. The two schools haven't met on a football field since 2011, when Justin Tucker's 40-yard game-winning field goal gave the Longhorns a 27-25 victory at Kyle Field.
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