Texas, Oklahoma Move One Step Closer to Joining SEC

The Big 12 Conference could lose its two most prominent members by 2025.

The University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma gave their notice to the Dallas-based athletic conference Monday that it would not renew its grants of media rights beyond 2025.

Officially, this means that the Big 12 Conference will no longer own the media rights to Texas and Oklahoma football and basketball after the 2024-25 athletic season ends. Unofficially, it means the Texas's and Oklahoma's efforts to join the Southeastern Conference are one stop closer to becoming reality.

The announcement comes less than 24 hours after officials from the two universities met via teleconference with Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

Still, any announcement about Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 at the end of the 2024-25 season is premature. The notice of non-renewal of their media rights does not necessarily mean they will leave the conference or that they will join the SEC. As Bryan Fischer of Athlon Sports points out, the two universities would have to pay a hefty sum to leave the Big 12.

Texas A&M has taken notice to these latest developments. That university left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012. Now, they're discussing their next possible move should their former mates in both the Big 12 and the Southwestern Conference jump to their current conference.

While Texas A&M could be plotting a move out of the SEC to avoid Texas A&M and Oklahoma, questions about another current Big 12 member are arising. The latest conference realignment could cause the University of West Virginia to seek greener pastures in another conference that's based closer to its Morgantown campus.

Regardless of what happens in terms of conference realignment, sports fans and pundits are having fun on social media with the story and the seeming demise of the Big 12 Conference.