I think it's easy to just default to saying that this move is because of money and that's that ...
I don't think that's that
I think the same recruiting issues we're seeing on the West Coast of top end players thumbing their noses at the P12 schools to go to the SEC, Clemson, and Ohio is also happening in Texas ...
Oklahoma is looking at the environment around them, seeing that they basically sleep walk their way to the B12 title every year because the only score with comparable resources in Texas can't get out of their own way to be competitive and the reward for that is to go face SEC winner, Ohio, or Clemson in the CFP semifinals and get their ass kicked. So they go into the recruiting battles for elite kids and these kids are telling them "why would I go to Oklahoma when you can't win a big game" ... sound familiar? Only difference is that Oklahoma's Plan B players kick the shit out of our current Plan B recruits but I digress ...
As for Texas, they're petty and jealous as fuck at all times. They are embarrassed at the fact that they can't recruit well enough. NIL isn't doing anything for them because their money is getting matched and will only continue to get matched going forward. The ego with the Texas fat cats is beyond belief. In their minds, they think the only thing stopping them is that they aren't in the SEC ... they'll be in for a rude awakening but whatever.
Neither school has ever hurt for money. This is completely tied to protecting the money and recruiting going forward. They saw the tea leaves, ESPN/FOX not so subtly told them that they weren't interested in doing business going forward with the Big 12 at market rates, and away we go ...
This isnt about recruiting you fucking recrooting doog. Its about eyeballs and tv contracts.
Oklahoma isnt going to recruit that much differently now that it is in the SEC.
The SEC is now made up of a bunch of huge ego programs...and there can only be 1 winner of the conference.
OU and Texas are going to miss the gimme games of the Big 12 an awful lot. Or maybe their success come at the demise of LSU or a Saban-less Bama?
Some schools arent going to get the success they feel entitled too. And that is when things will get interesting.
I'll just stick to what I've seen/heard in talking with people I know that are down there
This has been moving to a consolidated world of CFB for a long time ... I've been talking about it for at least a few years because the tea leaves were there.
If you do any kind of deep dives you'll notice that there are a handful of programs that drive the balance of the revenue in college football (good news for UW is that we're going to be above that cut line) and that line has been shifting a bit simply because some of the SEC schools have come along for the ride. The other big takeaway on the revenue side is that there's a loyalty and old money aspect within the Big 10 that will assure that it's always got a seat at the table.
College football going forward isn't healthy if there are not solid presences on the West Coast. So something will happen and UW will be involved unless Jen (or the West Coast politicians) completely fucks it up. But is that number the 12 that currently exist within the PAC 12? Absolutely not.
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