Report: Oklahoma and Texas reach exit agreement with the Big 12

The long saga between Oklahoma, Texas, and the Big 12 is coming to an end.

Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated reported on Thursday that the Big 12, the Oklahoma Sooners, and the Texas Longhorns have reached an exit agreement that will allow for the two schools to officially join the SEC in 2024. UT and OU will owe a combined $100 million to the eight legacy Big 12 schools they are leaving behind to help offset the decreased television revenue the conference will receive as a result of their depatures.

The news comes just days after ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the effort for the two schools to leave a year earlier than their scheduled departure in 2025 had stalled. A huge factor was Fox, a major rights holder for Big 12 games, losing scheduled Oklahoma and Texas games on their network to ESPN, who will own virtually the entire SEC inventory. Details of how the two television titans ironed things out were not released but it wouldn’t be a surprise if major non-conference showdowns like Texas vs. Ohio State or Oklahoma vs. Michigan were to appear on Fox in the coming years.

With the Horns and Sooners finally SEC bound for the 2024 season, the conference can finally get around to determining its schedule structure for that season.