The wheels could be turning when it comes to Oklahoma and Texas moving to the SEC sooner than the fall of 2025.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the SEC had told Georgia and Tennessee to cancel upcoming games with the Oklahoma Sooners that were set to be played before OU joined the conference.
The other UT-OU game was slated for Knoxville in 2024. That left the return games in each of the series to take place after OU and Texas are scheduled to join the league for the 2025 football season.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 14, 2022
Rumors have persisted since the initial announcement that Oklahoma and Texas would find a way to leave the Big 12 early to join the SEC before 2025. However, this is the first bit of news that might provide to be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to a future early move.
With the news came a lot of raised eyebrows throughout the world of college football.
— Ben Peck – KCEN/KAGS 🦚🐻👍 (@TheBenPeck) September 14, 2022
Well this is certainly interesting. https://t.co/JtqaBDyF38
— Eddie Radosevich (@Eddie_Rado) September 14, 2022
Smoke…Texas & OU set to leave the Big 12 sooner than 2025? https://t.co/OBPS8IfTU2
— Jake Hatch (Yawk) jakehatch.bsky.social (@JacobCHatch) September 14, 2022
Lawyers be lawyering. https://t.co/Y41nlrRppS
— Andrew Hammond (@ahammALDC) September 14, 2022
While the world of college football was taking in the news, Oklahoma was already set to turn the page and announced a new series just a few minutes after Thamel’s initial tweets went out to the world.
OU announces home-and-home series with SMU, postpones series with Georgia and Tennessee amid future move to the SEC. https://t.co/o0NAogLBZN | #OUDNA pic.twitter.com/svSaRDtKyU
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) September 14, 2022
Despite being in neighboring states, the series will just be the sixth and seventh times the schools have met on the gridiron. The game next season in Norman will be the schools’ first meeting since 1995. The 2027 game at SMU will be OU’s first time visiting the Mustangs since 1970.