Southeastern Conference university presidents voted to invite Texas and Oklahoma to join the league and create a 16-team powerhouse on the field and at the bank. The latest step in a move that has potential to help reshape college sports came two days after Texas and Oklahoma requested to join the SEC in 2025.
That’s when the schools’ media rights agreement with the Big 12 expires. SEC leaders voted unanimously to extend an invitation, effective July 1, 2025. Now the process goes back to the schools. Texas and Oklahoma both have board of regents meetings scheduled for Friday with conference affiliation on the agenda.
If completed, the move would reunite Missouri with a pair of former Big 12 conference foes, who triggered instability a decade ago with threats to join the then Pac 10. Texas and Oklahoma, two of the strongest brands in college sports, have long been accused of having an outsized degree of influence over conference matters, and particularly finances.
A University of Missouri spokesperson referred requests for comment to the league office.
“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,” said Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a news release. “I greatly appreciate the collective efforts of our Presidents and Chancellors in considering and acting upon each school’s membership interest.”
