OU and Texas Announce They Will Not Renew Grants of Media Rights In 2025

Less than 24 hours after meeting with the Big 12 Executive Committee, Oklahoma and Texas have announced in a joint statement they will not be renewing their grants of media rights following expiration in 2025.

“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 the expiration in 2025,” the joint statement read. “Proving 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 grant of rights agreements. However, both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how best to position their athletics programs for the future.”

Related: A look at conference situations for Oklahoma State

As mentioned above, this joint statement comes less than 24 hours after OU and Texas leadership met with the Big 12 Executive Commitment and Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby to discuss future financial situations. The proposal would’ve consisted of the eight remaining members pooling together some of their shares of the conference revenue to pay OU and Texas a share and a half in stead of the normal share, which would’ve been roughly $56 million.

Related: What could Bedlam look like for all sports moving foward?

As Pokes Report has mentioned over the past week in multiple articles, it wasn’t if OU and Texas left the Big 12 for the SEC, it was when they decided to leave for the SEC.

This now frees up the remaining eight schools of the Big 12 to explore all their options out in the open, rather than covertly or by third party. For Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, his mission now is to try and keep the remaining schools and bring in other programs to keep the conference afloat. However, that seems to be a losing battle at this point.

We’ve also reported that Oklahoma State the most proactive school over the past weeks when it comes to searching for a new home, with all three Power Five conference still in play.