clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Reports: Texas and Oklahoma Are Interested in Joining SEC

SUPER SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE

College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - LSU v Oklahoma Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

A bombshell report came out of the Houston Chronicle Wednesday when it was reported that Texas and Oklahoma have reached out to the SEC about joining the conference.

From the report, which you can read here though the link is behind a paywall.

Texas and Oklahoma of the Big 12 have both reached out to the Southeastern Conference about potentially joining the powerful league, a high-ranking college official with knowledge of the situation told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday.

An announcement could come within a couple of weeks concerning the potential addition of UT and OU to the league, he person said, which would give the SEC schools and make it the first national super-conference.

College realignment was a hot topic in the 2010s, chock full of rumors and speculation about the possible emergence of four 16-team super conferences. Now, nine years after the SEC extended an invite to Texas A&M and Missouri, the rumors are flying again though there seems to be quite a bit of fire to the smoke.

There were also these non-denials, the first from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey:

Then a second non-denial from Sankey:

And finally, Oklahoma put out maybe the most massive of all the non-denials:

The funniest part of all this was that the Houston Chronicle report dropped basically right as Jimbo Fisher took the podium at SEC Media Days. Speaking of Texas A&M, the Aggies are big mad about the prospects of Texas—even though they aren’t rivals?—and Oklahoma joining the conference.

If there was some type of action taken by the SEC to extend an invite to Texas, Oklahoma, or any school for that matter, it will need 11 of the 14 current schools to vote yes. A&M, obviously, would vote no on extending an invite and you’d assume Missouri would too. Can the former Big 12 members get two more schools to come over to their line of thinking or will the money schools stand to gain by adding marquee programs like Texas and Oklahoma talk louder?

If Texas and Oklahoma were to join, the SEC would have to realign its divisions and LSU could stand to benefit.

New SEC Divisions

West

Arkansas

LSU

Mississippi State

Missouri

Oklahoma

Ole Miss

Texas

Texas A&M

East

Alabama

Auburn

Georgia

Florida

Kentucky

South Carolina

Tennessee

Vanderbilt

If it’s up to me, sign me the hell up for this. I get Alabama out of the West and in turn have an easier path to Atlanta? Yes, please.

What about, y’all? How do you feel about Texas and Oklahoma potentially joining the SEC? We’ll have more as this story evolves.