Texas, Oklahoma leaving Big 12 Conference as college football shake-up begins
Oklahoma and Texas have informed the Big 12 of their intent to withdraw from the conference, the two schools announced Monday, in a move that paves the way for the powerhouse programs to become the newest members of the SEC.
"The University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas at Austin notified the Big 12 Athletic Conference today that they will not be renewing their grants of media rights following expiration in 2025," the two schools said in a joint statement.
"Providing notice to the Big 12 at this point is important in advance of the expiration of the conference's current media rights agreement. The universities intend to honor their existing grants of rights agreements. However, both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how to best position their athletics programs to the future."
The schools did not specify which conference they intend to join, but all signs point to the Southeastern Conference.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/texas-oklahoma-leaving-big-12-conference-as-college-football-shake-up-begins/ar-AAMzI7m
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... the Big Ten later.
Other than Texas, they're the only Big 12 conference schools which are members of the AAU -- i.e., leading research universities -- and that's basically a requirement for Big Ten consideration. (Nebraska is not in the AAU anymore, making it the lone exception, but they were a member when they first joined the Big Ten conference.)
The 66 AAU member schools in the USA and Canada:
https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members
Maybe the Big Ten logo, which looks like B16 anyway, will have more than 14 members eventually?
Big Ten reportedly considering only schools with this distinction for expansion
https://buckeyeswire.usatoday.com/2021/07/26/big-ten-conference-expansion-teams-must-have-aau-membership-ohio-state-football/
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... According to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, the Big Ten is only interested in schools that are a part of the Association of American Universities (AAU). Despite all that a school can bring on the field of play and its reach, the academic side has always been highly considered as well.
If true, that means a school rumored to be in the mix, Oklahoma State, would not be considered. In fact, the only Big 12 schools that are AAU members are Texas, which appears headed to the SEC; Kansas; and Iowa State. It’s true Nebraska is not an AAU member, but the Cornhuskers were when they joined the Big Ten.
That really pares the list of schools that could even be in the picture for joining the Big Ten if mass chaos ensues. There may not be a seat at the table for some institutions. In fact, they may not even get past the front door.
But here’s the deal — we’ve seen before where situations can change when money really becomes an issue. If it comes down to it, and the Big Ten has an opportunity to take a school that checks all the boxes except the AAU accreditation, what will it do? Especially if it means a boatload of money because of market expansion, etc.
We’re all just watching how this will play out in the theater of collegiate athletics. We’ll continue to stay on top of it.
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Another consideration, not mentioned in the above article, are schools within states that are contiguous to current conference members.
So future members might include Pittsburgh or Virginia too, both of whom would probably expand their TV market.