By: Gus Wilson

Two current Big 12 universities, University of Texas at Austin (Texas) and University of Oklahoma (OU), have informed the rest of the Big 12 that they plan on leaving the conference in the year 2025. Both of these college football powerhouses plan on joining the Southeastern Conference (SEC), to compete against other dominant colleges such as the University of Alabama, University of Florida, and the University of Georgia. 

When it comes to negotiations, Texas and OU are not up to hearing them from the director chairman Lawrence Schovanec, as they have already made up their minds to leave this top division program.. While neither wanted to stay in the conference, they both agreed to continue competing against the other Big 12 teams until their year of departure. 

Every year, these top  colleges compete against each other in one of the most heated rivalries of the college football season, the Red River Rivalry. From the history between these teams, it was obvious that both colleges would join the same conference to keep the friendly competition alive. 

Location wise, both teams’ move makes sense. Clearly, both the states are located in the southeast of the United States, and in fact, Texas A&M, another college team, already plays in the SEC.

On August 12th, 2021, the presidents of the SEC voted unanimously to approve the additions of both Texas and Oklahoma into the conference. The shuffling of teams has led to a variety of rumors regarding the future of college football. One of these rumors that have surfaced was about the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and SEC merging together, the American Athletic Conference joining the Big 12, forming “superconferences.”  With all this booming news from the college football league, we don’t know how the divisions will switch up in the next few years and beyond.