Texas and Oklahoma have reached an early exit agreement with the Big 12 that will see the powers depart for the SEC following the 2023-24 athletic season. The Big 12 and both programs announced Thursday night that the Longhorns and Sooners will pay early withdrawal fees of a combined $100 million to join the SEC in 2024, a full season earlier than originally planned.
The Big 12’s two most prominent programs made waves in July 2021 when they accepted invitations to join the SEC, setting off the latest round of conference realignment. At the time, Texas and Oklahoma planned to move to the SEC beginning July 1, 2025, once the Big 12’s active grant of rights agreement expired, opening the door for UT and OU to depart the conference free and clear.
However, once the Big 12 backfilled its membership by adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF — all joining the league for the 2023 season — momentum began to shift toward the Longhorns and Sooners leaving for the SEC earlier than scheduled. Texas and Oklahoma not only preferred to avoid playing the new Big 12 members, they wanted to join the SEC for Year 1 of its new TV deal with ESPN. The Big 12 eyed the substantial exit fee to supplement the new six-year media rights deal it negotiated with Fox and ESPN in October 2022.
The eight legacy Big 12 teams agreed to share a portion of their media rights distributions from the Big 12’s existing deals with Fox and ESPN to make possible the four-team expansion. Each program decided to forgo $16 million total ($8 million annually in 2023-24 and 2024-25) in future monies, sources previously told CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd.
The negotiated $100 million early exit fee the Big 12 will receive from Texas and Oklahoma for not being part of the league’s media…
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