This week well known reporters with good reputations reported that the possibility of Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC in 2024 was dead. Most of the subsequent stories pointed to Fox as being the biggest unsatisfied party.
However, almost as soon as Fox decided they could delay Texas and Oklahoma from going to the SEC, something happened to dramatically push things forward.
Here is my overly simplistic reasoning.
Reason number 1- Texas is scheduled to go to Ohio St. in 2025.
Reason number 2- Texas was scheduled to go to Michigan in 2027. This got home and home got flipped to 2024 in the compromise for Fox.
Reason number 3- Oklahoma is scheduled to go to Michigan in 2026.
How much value is there for Fox to broadcast those games? It sure would have been a real hit to see OU and Texas cancel out of those series games. Right?
How much less do you think it would have cost for Texas and/or OU to postpone or outright cancel the series with Ohio St. and Michigan? I would guess at least 10X less than Fox would get in broadcasting those games.
Now you know why Fox was NOT going to delay Texas and Oklahoma from going to the SEC. They had leverage too.
OK, maybe it was more complicated than that. However, don't overlook the simple reasons as being the best summary of what happened.
I think this deal got done because the one party that was holding out the hardest was simply reminded that there was significant downside for them too.
Read more here about Texas to SEC 2024. Here is a potential future Texas and SEC schedule.
Hook 'Em
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