Sonny Dykes had some great comments this week about realignment in college football.
Dykes spoke at Big 12 Media Days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Wednesday. The Big 12 has added four schools to the conference this year: BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston. They expanded to make up for losing Oklahoma and Texas in 2024.
Dykes, who is entering his second year at TCU, believes that schools moving to more difficult conferences in exchange for more money may not always be a good thing.
“Missouri was playing in a lot of Big 12 championships… haven’t seen that much in the SEC. [Texas] A&M was a competitive program, not as often now. I don’t know about you but UCLA and Rutgers feels like a natural rivalry to me,” Dykes joked, via TCU reporter Melissa Triebwasser.
“Every school has to do what they feel best for them. ‘We went 4-8 last year but we made a lot of money’… every school has to decide what matters to them.”
Missouri had been in the Big 12 (previously the Big 6, 7 and then 8) for over 80 years before moving to the SEC. They fared extremely well in 2013 and 2014 but haven’t had a winning season in conference since then.
Texas A&M was an original Southwest Conference member for 80 years, then moved to the Big 12, and they moved to the SEC in 2012. Until last year, the Aggies hadn’t had a losing season since joining the SEC. They’re not such a great example of a team being hurt by moving conferences considering they hadn’t played all that great in the Big 12.
Dykes’ joke about Rutgers and UCLA is a great one. Both schools are newer additions to the Big Ten and have no history of being part of that conference. The schools are at opposite ends of the country and have no ties to each other. Rutgers has been terrible in football since joining the conference. UCLA might struggle too. But at least both schools are receiving big pay days.
TCU hasn’t dominated the Big 12 like they did in the Mountain West Conference, but after making the national championship game last season, they have a lot more room for bragging.
