Buckle up folks, we may have a landmark moment in college football on the horizon. The two staple teams of the Big 12 have reached out to the SEC about joining the conference, according to the Houston Chronicle's Brent Zwerneman https://twitter.com/BrentZwerneman/status/1417931953198731264.
A couple of thoughts on this move. The first is that this would essentially be the death of the Big 12. They would instantly become akin to a mid-major type of conference if they lose the two most attractive football schools that they have. The second thought is that Texas and Oklahoma are not doing this for football reasons at all. The road to the College Football Playoff, as things stand today, would become arduous for both teams. You now have to compete with Georgia, Alabama, Florida, LSU, and Texas A&M for one spot, maybe two? Doing this, versus staying in a conference that you have been dominating for the better part of 20 years, does not make sense. However, it makes a ton of sense from a money perspective.
For the 2019-2020 academic year the SEC reported $657.7 million of revenue. That is $45.5 million for each university. The Big 12 for the same calendar year distributed $37.7 million to each university. The difference? The SEC has 14 schools in the conference versus the Big 12's 10. The kicker to this whole thing is that starting in the 2024-2025 season, the SEC will be moving from CBS to ESPN. The 10-year deal will bring in a whopping $245 million for the conference. Heck, I would leave too if I were Oklahoma and Texas.
We may be seeing the end of conferences in college football. Now that the NCAA has no real authority, the schools don't need them anymore, therefore we do not really need conferences. Who knows what will come next, but this move could potentially be a gigantic step towards changing college athletics as we know it.