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Three hours after everyone in college football believes that a person whose name rhymes with "Pawn Darp" attempted to hijack the Texas/Oklahoma to SEC dream with a calculated leak while Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher and athletic director Ross Bjork were on standby at SEC Media Days, armed with quotes to damn the very idea of what was being reported... all was calm.
Just a few hours earlier, there was a combination of excitement and silence coming from the Longhorn athletic department and University of Texas officials. The little fish were buzzing, while the big fish were mum.
Suddenly, information was starting to flow freely as one high-level source told me mostly unprovoked that this would all go down in the next week, with Texas and OU sending notices that they were not renewing media rights deals at the conclusion of the 2024-25 athletic calendar. Oh, and the Longhorn Network would go bye-bye.
In the rush to process what I had been told, I missed something in the moment, but by the end of the night and certainly by Thursday morning, it had become very clear to me.
There was no panic. No fear of anything going sideways. It was impossible not to realize that the school, once nicknamed "red tape" by a five-star defensive tackle's mother on an official visit to Texas when school officials wouldn't pick up an entire tab for a set of family, friends and entourage, wasn't worried about... red tape? Hurdles? SEC votes? Nothing?
Three hours after the message had been released to the public, the leadership in Austin and Norman were relieved. Like a man that had lived a lie, only to find out that the truth wasn't actually that much of a problem, officials from both schools were not only thankful that this news that was always going to be tough to deliver had seen the light of day, but they were able to go on the offensive.
Suddenly, not only did Texas folks want to talk, but they wanted to give the details.
Why?
Because the train was so far down the tracks on this that not even a maroon "Hail Mary" (if we can even call it that... see below) could stop it. Simple as that.
Let's talk about some of the details...
a. Kevin Eltife might just be Frank Erwin's long, lost lovechild. It cannot be overstated how much juice he currently owns at the top of the power structure and how thirsty the school has become to change the dynamics that adversely impact the athletic programs, with a special nod to football and football recruiting. From the Board of Regents to the president's office to the athletic director, everyone is in lockstep. On top of all of this, his political chops are being counted on in any battle with A&M chancellor John Sharp, a man known for his own savvy. Not since the days of Erwin has a single person carried this much weight behind the scenes in Austin, and it has led us to this moment.
b. A&M has been counting on some of its SEC brothers to help block any move by Texas to enter the SEC, but there's just too much money at stake and the unofficial pursuit of Texas has gone on for too long to think that any gentlemen's agreements between conference friends means much. The money I've heard mentioned with TV revenues for all of the schools in the SEC with Texas and Oklahoma in the cupboard is north of 70-75 million per year.
c. There is a strong belief that the Longhorns and Sooners not only know that they will get into the SEC, but that they'll do so with a unanimous vote. When push comes to shove, Wednesday might have been as much about A&M stating their true feelings before being asked to fall in line as a good SEC soldier than it was actually about trying to stop Texas from getting in. No one in Austin or Norman seem concerned that there is a roadblock that will stop them. Maybe A&M votes against it, but no one seems to care.
d. A source told me on Thursday that the rubber met the road on discussions with the SEC the very moment that the Big 12's TV partners indicated that early negotiations on a new TV deal were a non-starter. "That was the moment that we knew there could not be more waiting around. The sentiment was shared by (OU)," one source told me on Thursday.
e. Speaking of the boys in Norman... they don't give a ****. You want to talk all gas, no brakes, just look at OU's role in this. If it took three hours for the UT side to come to grips with the fact the entire world now knew about the plans that have been in the works for some time, it took the Sooners about three minutes. I had UT sources telling me about the loud victory parties that were taking place in the OU athletics offices once the news broke. Hell, in a world where the Aggies didn't obviously leak this story, you'd halfway suspect that the giddy Sooners might have because they are in YOLO-mode.
f. The Longhorns have Greg Abbott on their side in a big, big way. This is where Eltife being the 2021 version of Frank Erwin is critical. I've never seen the Longhorns in a better position with political allies at the statewide level in my nearly three decades of covering the team. I was told that high-level donors from multiple schools reached out to Abbott's office on Thursday for support and were told that he isn't getting in UT's way.
g. I spoke with athletics officials and reporters connected to three other Big 12 schools, and they were all stunned by what happened yesterday. One person told me that they believed that Big 12 commish Bob Bowlsby was in Lawrence on the KU campus when the news broke and that Bowlsby didn't see it coming from a mile away. Two different sources told me that the schools that they cover had emergency meetings this morning to discuss what had transpired in the past 24 hours. Neither source had the slightest clue what would come next for the school that they are covering.
h. The Big 12 was not expecting Texas and Oklahoma to no-show the emergency league meeting that was called to discuss the events of the last 24 hours. Neither team wants to listen to anyone in the league about this. The message sent was every bit as loud as the notice of not extending the media rights agreement will be when it arrives next week.
i. Texas and Oklahoma are hoping that chaos takes place from here and that all of the other schools being forced to fend for themselves will open the doors for the league to dissolve organically and in a way that allows for the Longhorns/Sooners to enter the SEC before 2025. Expect both schools to sit back and watch the mess that they've created for others actually pave the way for both schools to get everything they want, but in a quicker timeframe than current contracts would suggest are possible. Texas and Oklahoma are counting on the other eight schools to cry uncle and admit that staying together for four more years is unsustainable. The Longhorns and Sooners will then do a collective shoulder shrug and say, "Well, if you think it's best..."
j. Speaking of shoulder shrugs, not a single Texas source we've communicated with has indicated that anyone cares that the Longhorn Network will dissolve ahead of schedule. There's so much money in all of this that everyone seems to understand... it's cool.
k. If you're wondering about the Kansas and Kansas State situations, it's a complete mess because of the mixed board of regents situations for both schools. However, there's a belief that if one school (KU) has better options than the other (KSU), the school with the options will be allowed to do whatever it needs to do to secure its future. Basically, KSU is about to be left to die in the wheat fields.
l. There's real movement for all of this to be settled by the middle of August in an effort to not distract from the season. The train is moving very, very fast, folks.
m. And finally... I asked a high-level Texas source about what he thought would happen with the Big 12 and if it mattered whether the league added more teams or if it dissolved altogether. The response? "Ultimately, we don't really care." Ouch."
