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Red River Farewell Tour: Oklahoma and Texas heading to SEC in 2024

By Cody Williams

Oklahoma and Texas players get in an argument during the Red River Showdown college football game between the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. Texas won 49-0.Lx19094
Oklahoma and Texas players get in an argument during the Red River Showdown college football game between the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. Texas won 49-0.Lx19094 /
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Despite the most recent report that nothing had changed, it’s now official that Oklahoma and Texas will join the SEC in 2024, a year earlier than expected.

Oklahoma and Texas simply aren’t allowed by the laws of nature to be friendly. But for once, they’ll be skipping hand-in-hand, so to speak, onto their next great venture: the SEC. The universities will also be doing so a year earlier than previously agreed upon.

When the Sooners and Longhorns made it official that they would be leaving the Big 12 and joining the SEC, the official date for that to happen was July 1, 2025. That left a long, awkward period for both programs to sit in the Big 12 knowing their leaving, one they had previously been trying to escape earlier, but to seemingly no avail.

On Thursday evening, though, the SEC dropped the bombshell that Oklahoma and Texas had finally reached an agreement with the Big 12 to join their new conference a year earlier than first announced on July 1, 2024.

Now the Red River Rivalry will be having its Big 12 Farewell Tour in the 2023 season, their last in the conference.

Oklahoma and Texas leaving for SEC in 2024, playing final Big 12 season in 2023

Though we don’t have full specifics on what took so long for this obvious decision to be handed down, the assumption has long been that TV rights played a major factor in the reluctance to let Oklahoma and Texas leave earlier than previously agreed upon.

After all, it’s a lot harder to sell to FOX an Iowa State vs. Baylor matchup than it is any game for Oklahoma and Texas in terms of viewership if you’re the Big 12.

Alas, the two universities and their soon-to-be old conference have now reached some agreement and the Sooners and Longhorns will be SEC programs soon enough. Sports, football in particular, have always meant a lot to OU and UT, but where they’re headed now, it just means even more.

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