A few things to ponder when waiting to find out when Texas and OU start in the SEC. The current SEC TV deal with CBS runs out after the 2023 football season. (That deal is a terrible deal for the SEC, excellent for CBS at around $55 million for best games and SEC title game) 1/5
If OU and Texas came to the SEC prior to 2023, assuming they escape grant of rights, CBS would presumably have access to Red River and their home games. CBS has shown in past SEC realignment that they aren’t going to pay more money for these games. 2/5
So there’s no likely financial bump for the rest of the SEC from CBS in short term. There *could* be some legal wrangling over whether CBS owns these games, but that seems unlikely to work. 3/5
The other dynamic here is that Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby is daring OU/Texas/ESPN to give them a reason get litigious. ESPN doesn’t have full control of SEC TV rights until 2024 season, which would be the final one OU and Texas are in Big 12. 4/5
That’s a long way to say that market and legal forces *could* lead to some patience here. Also, exit fees are giant at more than $150 million combined. The juice may not be worth the squeeze when you judge cost and legal risk with seemingly limited potential return. 5/5
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