NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) – The Southeastern Convention says it should ship an official invitation to affix the convention to 2 present Large 12 groups.
Final week, rumors started swirling that the College of Oklahoma and College of Texas had been choices to affix the highly effective Southeastern Convention.
After listening to of the studies, the College of Oklahoma launched a press release saying, “The school athletics panorama is shifting consistently. We don’t deal with each nameless rumor.”
On Sunday, the Large 12 Convention’s Govt Committee met with Oklahoma officers concerning the college’s future.
“The assembly was cordial, and the Govt Committee expressed a willingness to debate proposals that will strengthen the Convention and be mutually helpful to OU and UT, in addition to the opposite member establishments of the Convention,” Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. “I anticipate that we’ll proceed our conversations within the days forward and we sit up for discussing ideas, concepts and ideas that could be of shared curiosity and affect.”
On Monday, the College of Oklahoma and the College of Texas at Austin launched a joint assertion concerning media rights and the Large 12 Convention.
“The College of Oklahoma and The College of Texas at Austin notified the Large 12 Athletic Convention at this time that they won’t be renewing their grants of media rights following expiration in 2025. Offering discover to the Large 12 at this level is essential upfront of the expiration of the convention’s present media rights settlement. The colleges intend to honor their current grant of rights agreements. Nevertheless, each universities will proceed to observe the quickly evolving collegiate athletics panorama as they take into account how greatest to place their athletics applications for the longer term.”
JOINT STATEMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA AND UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
At some point later, the College of Oklahoma and the College of Texas at Austin formally requested invites to affix the Southeastern Convention, starting July 1, 2025.
“We consider that there could be mutual profit to the Universities on the one hand, and the SEC alternatively, for the Universities to grow to be members of the SEC,” the formal request learn.
In a press release, the colleges mentioned they “sit up for the prospect of discussions concerning the matter.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey launched a press release on Twitter, saying the convention would take into account the request.
“The College of Oklahoma and the College of Texas, two esteemed tutorial establishments with storied athletics applications, at this time submitted formal requests for invites to grow to be members of the Southeastern Convention in 2025. Whereas the SEC has not proactively sought new members, we’ll pursue vital change when there’s a clear consensus amongst our members that such actions will additional enrich the experiences of our student-athletes and result in higher tutorial and athletic achievement throughout our campuses. The Presidents and Chancellors of the SEC, of their capability because the convention’s Chief Govt Officers, will take into account these requests within the close to future. Per the Bylaws of the SEC, a vote of no less than three-fourths of the SEC’s 14 members is required to increase an invite for membership.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey
On Thursday, presidents and chancellors of the 14 groups within the SEC met to debate the request by OU and Texas.
Throughout that assembly, they voted unanimously to increase membership invites to the College of Oklahoma and the College of Texas to affix the SEC efficient July 1, 2025, with competitors to start in all sports activities for the 2025-26 tutorial yr.
“Immediately’s unanimous vote is each a testomony to the SEC’s longstanding spirit of unity and mutual cooperation, in addition to a recognition of the excellent legacies of educational and athletic excellence established by the Universities of Oklahoma and Texas,” mentioned Commissioner Greg Sankey. “I vastly admire the collective efforts of our Presidents and Chancellors in contemplating and appearing upon every faculty’s membership curiosity.”
Now the method goes again to the colleges. Texas and Oklahoma each have board of regents conferences schedule for Friday with convention affiliation on the agenda. Whether or not the boards will transfer to simply accept the invites at these conferences is unknown, however it’s virtually sure they’ll in some unspecified time in the future.
Then the query turns into: Can Texas and Oklahoma discover a solution to be a part of their new convention prior to 2025? It has the makings of being a messy divorce with the Large 12.
The convention bylaws state that faculties departing earlier than the grant of rights runs out in 2025 are on the hook for penalties value tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
