The SEC has officially extended invitations to OU and Texas to join the conference. SEC presidents voted unanimously for the addition of the Sooners and Longhorns at a meeting Thursday.
NEWS | The @SEC Presidents & Chancellors voted unanimously Thursday to extend membership invitations to the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas to join the SEC effective July 1, 2025, with competition to begin in all sports for the 2025-26 academic year.
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) July 29, 2021
"Today's unanimous vote is both a testament to the SEC's longstanding spirit of unity and mutual cooperation, as well as a recognition of the outstanding legacies of academic and athletic excellence established by the Universities of Oklahoma and Texas," SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a press release. "I greatly appreciate the collective efforts of our Presidents and Chancellors in considering and acting upon each school's membership interest."
Oklahoma and Texas informed the Big 12 on Monday of the universities’ intention to leave the conference by 2025. OU President Joseph Harroz and UT President Jay Hartzell formally sent Sankey a request for membership on Tuesday.
Both schools will hold separate board of regents meetings on Friday morning, where it is expected that both will accept the invitation.
After the Sooners and Longhorns received their invites to the SEC, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby released a statement saying that he believes the SEC began planning to add OU and Texas months ago, and that the conference's announcement on Thursday confirms that.
"We are disappointed these discussions went as far as they did without notice to, or inclusion of, other Big 12 members," Bowlsby's statement read. "Despite our concerns for the process and for the overall health of college athletics, we will do everything possible to make sure that the student-athletes at both universities enjoy an excellent experience throughout the remaining four years of their participation and competition in the Big 12 Conference."
It is unknown if the remaining eight Big 12 schools will elect to stay with the conference through 2025 or will request entry to other conferences.
However, on Wednesday, reports surfaced that Bowlsby and the Big 12 have sent a cease and desist letter to ESPN demanding it end all actions that may harm the league’s realignment. The letter states that the network reached out to at least one Big 12 school to encourage it to leave the conference, according to Sports Illustrated.
"It causes me to further suspect (ESPN) had their hands all over the Texas and Oklahoma move to the SEC,” Bowlsby told SI’s Ross Dellinger. ”They were as deceptive as you can possibly be. There are right and wrong ways to these things. They sought to deceive us from the very beginning."
ESPN released a statement, Thursday, on the Big 12’s claims, saying they “have no merit.”
The Sooners and Longhorns would become the third and fourth former Big 12 teams to join the SEC since 2012. Texas A&M and Missouri left the Big 12 in 2011.
OU and Texas were original members of the Big 12 when it was founded in 1994. Oklahoma has won 14 conference championships since 1996 when conference play started, the most of any school. UT has the second most Big 12 titles with three.
