The Wait Is Over: OU and Texas Out After 2023-24 / (Update with Dr.Shrum comment)

STILLWATER – The Big 12 Conference is finally going to get the math back to agreeing with the name. The Big 12 Presidents and Chancellors that make up the Board of Directors met by Zoom this afternoon (Feb. 9) and formally approved an agreement that will allow the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas to leave the conference after the upcoming 2023-24 academic and athletic year.

The two departing schools will be allowed to follow the path they set out on in the spring and summer of 2021. What had been an ongoing and secret process first broke in the Houston Chronicle that Oklahoma and Texas were seeking membership in the Southeastern Conference. They will officially be out of the Big 12, a conference they were instrumental in founding, as of July 1, 2024. Next season 14 schools with the new additions of BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston joining in with the two schools in their final year and the legacy eight of Oklahoma State, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia will make up a 14-team conference. Then, July 1, 2024, the Big 12 will be at 12 members.

“As I have consistently stated, the Conference would only agree to an early withdrawal if it was in our best interest for Oklahoma and Texas to depart prior to June 30, 2025,” said Commissioner Brett Yormark. “By reaching this agreement, we are now able to accelerate our new beginning as a 12-team league and move forward in earnest with our initiatives and future planning. I appreciate the approaches of OU President Joe Harroz and UT President Jay Hartzell to ensure an amicable conclusion to this process, and look forward to the bright days ahead for the Big 12 Conference.”

Oklahoma State University President Dr. Kayse Shrum was pleased with the resolution.

“This is a good decision for the Big 12 and four our individual universities,” Dr. Shrum sent to Pokes Report. “We are pleased to close this chapter and look forward to the future.”

Oklahoma and Texas were looking for a negotiated exit which would save them some of the estimated $168 million each it would take in penalty to leave early. Meanwhile, a majority of the remaining and existing members of the Big 12, including Oklahoma State, were dead set on making OU and Texas pay every penny owed for the right to leave early. The negotiated early exit started, prior to the issues with FOX, with the two departing schools giving up revenue from the current year and the upcoming final year (2023-24) as opposed to paying an out-of-pocket amount. 

Giving up part of their conference revenue for two school years could result in close to $100 million total from Oklahoma and Texas going back to the existing members of the conference including Oklahoma State.

The football schedule for 2023 was out last week. It was originally thought that would be when the announcement would come that Oklahoma and Texas would be out after 2023-24, but problems erupted with television partners FOX and ESPN, FOX felt there was not enough suitable inventory, primarily for football, in the last year of the current Big 12 television rights deal. ESPN was not as concerned as they would be getting Oklahoma and Texas in the exclusive new rights deal that starts with the SEC in the 2024-25 academic year.

FOX felt they were getting the short end with a potential of seven dates with Oklahoma and/or Texas, including the Red River Rivalry game between the Sooners and Longhorns out of the inventory for the 2024-25 athletic year.  

The proposed fix is that Oklahoma and Texas will both schedule non-conference games with premium members of the Big Ten Conference, where FOX is not only the predominant rights holder, but also a part of the Big Ten on the receiving end of revenue through their deal with the conference in establishing and maintaining the Big Ten Network. 

We’re not sure of the matchups, but it is believed that Oklahoma and Texas will be involved in games with Ohio State and Michigan in addition to at least one more game each with other Big Ten schools. 

OSU Cowgirls Softball Twitter

Dr. Kayse Shrum, in front and left, was a holdout as she wanted to exract all possible from Oklahoma and Texas.

The 2023 year was a jigsaw puzzle with Oklahoma and Texas both still in the conference and the new members of Brigham Young University, University of Central Florida, University of Cincinnati, and University of Houston joining up with the conference. 

That solution in the 2023 football schedule has been out for over a week and has been met with positivity both inside and outside of the conference. It has also been accepted well by the television partners.

Oklahoma and Texas, along with the SEC, were hoping the schools could get out before the 2024-25 academic year, which was the last with the grant of rights attached to the previous Big 12 television contract that held the two schools in the conference through ownership of their television rights. 

Oklahoma State’s Complete 2023 Schedule

• 9/2 vs. Central Arkansas
• 9/9 at Arizona State
• 9/16 vs. South Alabama
• 9/23 at Iowa State
• 9/30 BYE
• 10/06 vs. Kansas State 
• 10/14 vs. Kansas
• 10/21 at West Virginia
• 10/28 vs. Cincinnati
• 11/04 vs. Oklahoma
• 11/11 at UCF
• 11/18 at Houston
• 11/25 vs. BYU
• 12/2 Big 12 Championship Game

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark is looking forward to moving on with new deals.

The Big 12’s remaining members of Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas, Texas Christian, Texas Tech and West Virginia, along with the new members, are anxious to move on to the future they have. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was also in favor of a negotiated early departure for OU and Texas. He had told the Big 12 Board of Directors, minus representatives of the departing schools, that new plans and potential marketing opportunities could not come to fruition until after OU and Texas were gone. 

This allows for all that to happen. While the Big 12’s old guard may not have squeezed out every possible penalty financially out of the Sooners and Longhorns, there is enough to make them happy. There is the end of the frustration of having two schools around that helped found the league and then turned traders. As Yormark informed the school’s presidents and chancellors, he and his staff can move forward full speed with future deals to make the Big 12 even more influential and profitable.