Texas and Oklahoma Could Spark Conference Realignment

On July 1, 2025, two of the college football juggernauts wills be joining the most dominant conference in the SEC. In a somewhat surprising fashion, both Texas and Oklahoma have joined the SEC and essentially have left the Big 12 in the dust. On July 29, SEC officials voted unanimously to have the two schools join the conference. The answer is simple, everything comes down to money and exposure for these two schools. Joining the SEC gives the two blue blood programs more big game coverage and the TV deals with the SEC Network will be worth more than what they had with the Big 12.

This change has its pros and cons just like every decision. People have strong opinions on the matter including the voice of college football, Kirk Herbstreit. 

In talks about why the move is negative for the future of the game, Herbstreit said, “I guess it’s our new world, our new reality. I don’t know how you feel. I’m a bit of a traditionalist. … What’s becoming abundantly clear, and I hate to say this because I’ve always tried to fight it, is people are trying to stay at the top. They’re trying to compete with the SEC, and it’s all about money. It’s no longer about tradition.” 

The SEC already dominated college football. For reference, out of the last 16 national champions, 11 of them have been from the SEC. Now they add two of the best brands in college football which will boost both Texas and Oklahoma’s recruiting. Now I am thinking that the only other schools that can compete for a title are Clemson and Ohio State. There is one thing for certain, change is to come. 

Massive disruption is on the way and the landscape of college football will reshape. The realignment will create a ripple effect among the other conferences. 

Now it is a scramble for every other conference to try and obtain as much talent as possible. The speculation about independents and other schools are out and about in the media. 

Let the poaching of schools by other conferences begin.

I will go through each of the power five conferences and discuss the potential schools that could have a new conference by 2025.

ACC

The ACC seems to have two schools that would be ready and willing to join soon. Essentially, they would keep the 14 schools they have right now and steal West Virginia from the Big 12 and add Notre Dame, an independent university. This move makes a ton of sense. Geographically, West Virginia is not near many of the Big 12 schools now and they could benefit by joining a conference much closer to them. For the Fighting Irish, they have already played a season being a part of the ACC and they would be joining with some familiarity.

Big 10

The Big 10 would then poach Iowa State and Kansas from the Big 12 adding two more legit athletic programs to a conference that is trying to keep up with the SEC. Iowa State is perfectly situated for a spot in the Big 10 because Big 10 teams already travel to the state of Iowa to play the Hawkeyes. Furthermore, Kansas could benefit from joining a more intense league as they are trying to get their program on track. Being a part of a big conference leads to better recruiting. 

Big 12

The biggest change comes with the Big 12 as they will lose the most teams in this hypothetical situation. They will have to poach schools from the Mountain West, The American Athletic Conference, and the Conference USA. Overall, the Big 12 would consist of 16 teams which would include: Rice, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, SMU, UCF, USF, Baylor, Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Kansas State, Wyoming, Tulsa, Oklahoma State, Air Force, and Colorado State.

Pac 12

The Pac 12 would keep their current 12 teams and just extend into the more northeast and southeast part of the country. They would add two schools in Texas including TCU and Texas Tech along with the addition of Boise State and BYU. Adding these schools would allow the Pac 12 to be more relevant in how the nation views the conference. 

SEC

Texas and Oklahoma would be the two teams that join the SEC adding to the most dominant conference in college football. Simply put, both schools and the conference will benefit as the recruiting will skyrocket leading to trophies being raised. 

Writer

-By: Justin Howard