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Texas, Oklahoma Reach $100M Agreement with Big 12 for Early Exit to SEC in 2024

The University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma will officially leave the Big 12 for the SEC in July of 2024, one year earlier than initially expected — but not without paying a hefty price. 

Texas and Oklahoma reached an agreement with the Big 12 to pay $100 million in compensation for lost revenue stemming from the early departure. The Big 12’s press release said that “OU and UT will be able to partially offset” that cost “with future revenues” in the SEC. 

“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,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement. “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.”

The Big 12 will add four new teams this summer: BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston. Of those schools, BYU and Cincinnati sponsor both men’s and women’s swimming & diving, while Houston sponsors a women’s only program. That means that the net change will be a bigger Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships.

The 2024-25 season will be a season of significant change in the college sports world. With Texas and Oklahoma as new members of the SEC, UCLA and USC as new members of the Big Ten, and the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams, the NCAA landscape will have shifted dramatically. 

A league source tells SwimSwam that Texas is in line to host the 2026 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships, pending a final vote of the conference’s athletic directors. 

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Seth
1 year ago

Big 12 swimming will be completely different without Texas.
I wonder who will dominate Men’s and Women’s.

Fan
1 year ago

I’m still shocked that a school as rich as UT and with that incredible swim history has not renovated their facility. Aside from the new outdoor facility, the inside is simply OLD. They did not even show us the locker rooms on our official visit, which says a lot!

Old Swim Coach
Reply to  Fan
1 year ago

On our visit, we didn’t really care about that. We wanted to hear what Eddie, Wyatt, and the current team had to say.

Fan
Reply to  Old Swim Coach
1 year ago

Agreed, that is key, more about Wyatt than Eddie, as Eddie won’t be there much longer, obviously. It’s just shocking to see those facilities compared to other programs that have far far smaller athletic budgets.

Bay City Tex
1 year ago

I don’t think Horns will change their conference meet strategy. The only thing anyone remembers is the natty.

thezwimmer
1 year ago

time for the Sooners to renovate the Case Swim complex and revive the team. they’ve still got a beautiful long course outdoor pool right next door

Old Swim Coach
1 year ago

Start looking for 2025 SEC tickets. They may be the hardest ticket to come by in a long time.

oxyswim
Reply to  Old Swim Coach
1 year ago

Men’s NCAA tickets sold out in 3 minutes this year, going to be tough to top that for a swim meet.

SwimCoachSean
1 year ago

I just feel bad for the remaining men’s teams, it was already a smaller meet but now…

Sid Frisco
Reply to  Braden Keith
1 year ago

When the best team leaves the conference the conference does not get better. More teams and new champions yes. Better no.

Joel Lin
1 year ago

The exit fee of $50mm each for both Texas and Oklahoma to leave early is shockingly low. Maryland paid close to the same – after kicking and screaming about it – to leave the ACC a decade ago. Texas would have paid anything to not suck at football any Ionger & Oklahoma needed this move more desperately than Maryland did to leave the ACC at a time their athletic department was nearly insolvent following financial messes left by two borderline corrupt.

Horninco
Reply to  Joel Lin
1 year ago

It won’t even be that high. That’s a press release,

Alum11
Reply to  Joel Lin
1 year ago

Keep in mind, this penalty was just to leave an extra year early.

Maryland was penalized individually. This is the conference being penalized for taking them early. But they’ll make that 100 million plus some by getting them early I guess.

DCC Parent
1 year ago

Good riddance…

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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