To not leave for the SEC puts nearly a century of commitment to college football at risk for the Sooners.

The Oklahoma Sooners are something of an anomaly in the world of college football.

Oklahoma isn’t a wealthy state. It doesn’t have a huge population base within its borders. You can drive from Norman to the Dallas Metroplex in a couple hours, but that’s about the extent of the football program’s natural advantages.

The Sooners have one of the richest histories in the sport, however, because the team became a source of pride for a downtrodden state nearly a century ago. They win big consistently thanks to a foundation laid by decades of sweat equity and support from people who haven’t had much spare. All fans like to think there’s something special about the relationship between their favorite teams and their states or communities. That’s more true about Oklahoma than most anywhere else.

As the Sooners prepare to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC, it’s worth noting that OU isn’t offering fertile recruiting territory or big TV markets. By adding Oklahoma to its ranks, the SEC is getting a product that will further burnish its reputation as the elite of the elite in college football. Quality is OU’s value proposition, in other words.

That also explains why the Big 12 has given the Sooners a great home – a much better one than it seems to get credit for. Its members may not all have access to the best raw materials, but their commitment to playing quality football manifests itself in a culture of innovation throughout the league.

In the process, the Big 12 has become the dominant influence on how football is played at all levels in the modern era. Many of its programs consistently punch well above their weight as a result. Despite having a better roster year in and year out, the Sooners have been forced to push the strategic envelope in their own right to stay on top of the conference.

That makes OU’s imminent defection to the SEC feel — in a sense — pretty shitty. Seeing OU take part in hastening the corporatization of college football is bad enough. It’s worse knowing how this move will likely impact the other Big 12 teams even though they didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, they did a lot right to help turn Big 12 football into something far more interesting than watching teams like Tennessee and LSU beat each other over the head for four quarters.

So would everyone be happier overall if OU had a change of heart? Some would say ‘yes’, and that includes some Sooner fans who have become accustomed to annual conference championships and double-digit wins.

But for better or worse, college football and the Sooners matter a lot to the school, its fan and the state of Oklahoma. Given the direction of the sport, to not make a move to the SEC now risks consigning the Sooners to a future in which everything they’ve built over time fades away. It’s become clear in recent years that a move elsewhere is simply a matter of financial survival. It’s not a choice that feels good, but there really isn’t a choice to be made.

It’s officially official. Oklahoma intends to leave the Big 12 Conference.

On a balmy Monday morning, the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns released a joint statement notifying the Big 12 Conference of their intentions not to renew their grants of media rights that are set to expire in 2025.

Since this whirlwind of a news cycle first began to roll last Wednesday, this was the expected next step for both OU and UT. Now, all signs point to the SEC being the destination site at the end of all of this.

So when will this move officially come into effect? Well, while Oklahoma and Texas ‘intend to honor’ their respective GOR agreements by remaining in the Big 12 through 2025, there is a very real chance that a transition could be made much sooner. Look no further than the wording. The unpredictable nature of this ‘rapidly evolving collegiate athletic landscape’ will ultimately dictate the speed of development as much as anything else, and with so many other programs involved, contractual adjustments are all but a foregone conclusion.

What we can say for certain is that this is officially the beginning of the end for the Big 12 as we know it. Whether the league can salvage what’s left of itself and add enough teams to hold its seat at the college football table is still to be determined. As for the SEC, the dawn of super conferences appears to be upon us. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point over the next calendar year the Big Ten, ACC and/or the Pac-12 follow suit to expand their own leagues. Whatever the case may be, and however it all shakes out, it figures to be a wild ride.

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Texas A&M fans get mad, sad, then accept the future.

After a few days of exciting conference realignment talk, I thought it would be fun to look back on the message boards of an opposing fan base to see how they were taking it. What awaits you below the dividing line in this post are some of the best reactions of Texas A&M Aggies fans (via the message boards on TexAgs & Gig’em 247 ) as they watched their sole bragging rights of chanting “S-E-C” start slipping through their fingers as the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns are likely to join the SEC in the future. LET’S GET IT. (Note: Spelling errors are theirs, not ours)

• For some reason I think the $$$ will be too hard to say no to. I hope we do not expand.
• I’m ready to beat Texas **** again
• I’d be very shocked if Texas was approved.
• So they would need 11 to vote for it? A&M, Arkansas, Mizzou— Are all voting no.
• Ou won’t go anywhere without osu. No way sec takes them both.
• Bama would not be for it either.
• slive must be like voldemort.
• I love all the speculation around what the divisions would be. I see a lot of us, ou, texas, and mizz being in the same division. so we would basically have 3 of the same opponents as the last conference we were in LOL what absolute s-h-i-t deal that would be
• I think most fans on this board recognize (or at least I hope they do) that this would be an utter disaster for us
• Nothing brings out the idiotism in our fan base than talks of Texas & OU in the SEC
• People need to take a step back. Yes. This isn’t good for us and naturally we should be against it. But the melt this is causing is overdone. This isn’t 2011. We are going to be fine either way
• I’m getting the feeling that this is going to happen. Very glad we hired Jimbo before this went down.
• The SEC is our strongest, perhaps only, card against OU/Texas on the recruiting trail until we win something. The recruiting landscape would change instantly (in a bad way) overnight.
• I believe A&M will continue to win because of everything else A&M has to offer, but I guess you feel differently.
• I don’t want tu or ou to join simply because it helps them. I don’t care so much about ou, but my hope is that tu’s football program is basically non-existent in the next few decades.
• Do you really believe A&M had no idea this was happening if it was close to a done deal. A&M could absolutely be leaking it to try to stop it.
• Texas is blocked. Plain and simple. There was an agreement when we joined. This is click bait and nothing more.
• Baylor won’t allow it to happen.
• This is simply Texas and OU lawyers positioning for a bigger contract this coming go round. Actual invite to SEC was not happening and never was.
• I think there are real legs to this. Obviously we are worried or we wouldnt have leaked it. the CFB fan in my is excited about the conference but it clearly is worse for us. To be fair though, we dominated the 90s while in the same conference
• Why are people on this board so weird about Oklahoma?
• Better yet, why do people on this board even give a F about Oklahoma.
• We don’t want to give away our monopoly on SEC in texas, but the reality is that texas’s overall culture will keep them tripping over their own dicks (at least not to NC level), and we can compete/recruit against anybody now.
• You are in denial if you don’t think this helps their recruiting. The best want to play against the best. This is why the Big 12 is struggling. Sure they are getting good classes now. But this only ups the game for them
• It’s not that we’re afraid of TU at all and the arrogance of TU is not surprising. They aren’t going to show up and run things. We’ve just seen what they’ve done to the big 12 and SWC and the feeling is they really just don’t deserve to follow in OUR footsteps. OU, who gives a *****? Bring them in. They deserve better than TU’s Big 12 anyway. A&M is in a good position. “It ain’t like it used to be”
• Sounds like some back tracking to me after you all realized that A&M has zero leverage or control in this situation. You should have taken this stance before all this went down. The outside perception has now become A&M is crying and pitching a fit.
• Uh, that’s certainly not the perception. A&M is learning a hard lesson here… basically, don’t throw a crying temper tantrum.
• It was never a fear of playing them. It is a legitimate concern that our differentiator in the state for recruiting and relevance could become moot and we’re better off without them. But all said and done I think it makes too much sense for the SEC to grab two premier programs if they’re available.
• I still think we aren’t actually worried about it though. I think there’s more to it than being afraid to lose
• Break the Gentleman’s agreement, here are the consequences:

1. No courtesy suites for visiting admins and distinguished alumni
2. visiting fans split up in the worst seats possible, 250 to a section
3. the visiting locker rooms become extra shitty, immediately. One toilet, one sink, cold water only. Straight up petty stuff.
4. All visiting charters land at Hobby
5. Visitor walk throughs allowed between 6 am and 8 am only

• You have to pick your battles. This is over. We lost. Which is OK. This isn’t some massive, program ending blow. But doing ***** like this just makes us a complete and total laughing stock. This is dumb. This is a really bad look
• What message are we trying to send with this meeting? OU and Texas are going to be admitted to the SEC soon. Moving to this conference allowed us to become a better program, please don’t tell me we are considering alternative solutions here
• Hopefully this is just posturing and we aren’t actually considering suing the SEC.
• It just a f***ing meeting. Chill out.
• Oral contracts are enforceable in Texas
• Clicked on a story that had a link to other boards. We look like the 3 year old throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of Walmart to everyone right now. Nut up and show it on the field. This looks bad for recruiting, our fan base, and our university.
• You have this meeting to show you are not going to roll over and to get some scheduling guarantees from the conference. If we just accept it, we look weak. This is about strengthening our position.
• Understand something: If A&M gets in front of this…like it’s Chinese tank in Tianmmen Square….it will cost the SEC significant money and power as a the world’s first superconference which hurts A&M and the its league brethren. In fact, let’s say that A&M somehow derailed this and Texas and OU went to the ACC this costing the membership revenues and the SEC power at the negotiating table in shaping the future of college football football. You really want to go there?
• Why did Sankey hide expansion from A&M?
• Consider this possible line of thinking— adding t.u. and OU causes a situation where our 3 schools divide up recruits, thus keeping all of us somewhat stifled relative to traditional SEC blue bloods (primarily bama). As a result, they keep an edge on all 3 of us. Coincidence that this went town as A&M is creeping up on Bama? Maybe not.
• Cool maybe Oklahoma can get rid of all 46 or however many straight big 12 titles in the trash and actually win something meaningful.