The Big 12 on Thursday announced some major news about the conference.
The Big 12 said that they have reached an agreement with Texas and Oklahoma that will allow the schools to leave the conference a year early.
The 2023-2024 athletic year will be the final season the Longhorns and Sooners compete as Big 12 members. The two schools will begin competing in the SEC in the fall of 2024.
According to the announcement, the schools are paying $100 million for the right to leave early.
The schools announced in the summer of 2021 that they would be joining the SEC on July 1, 2025. Both schools were working to move up the date of their exit, but a recent report said all parties were not able to come to terms on an agreement. Apparently that has all changed.
The agreement gives the Longhorns and Sooners one more year in a weaker football conference to try and win big before they move to a much tougher conference. The news also means that, so long as he takes a redshirt in the fall, Arch Manning will play four seasons in the SEC.
The Big 12 is trying to counter the loss of Oklahoma and Texas by adding some schools. Even though the conference is named the Big 12, they currently only have 10 schools. They are adding BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston on July 1. The conference will have 14 schools for the 2023-2024 year. After that, they will be back to matching their name with 12 members: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia, BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.
