When the SEC Media Days get underway in Nashville this week, there will be a lot of questions for commissioner Greg Sankey about the future of the league with the pending additions of Oklahoma and Texas following the season.
That uncertainty was even more palpable at the Big 12 Media Days, which took place this past week. One headline-grabbing moment came from the conference’s deputy commissioner Tim Weiser, who implied that the two schools’ reasons for leaving the conference weren’t what they seemed.
Sankey fired back at that criticism on Sunday, calling Weiser’s assertions last week “fiction,” taking particular umbrage with the idea that the two schools were not equally interested in leaving the Big 12.
“I’m going to be as clear as I can,” Sankey said, per On3. “that’s fiction. Period. That’s fiction. The outreach was from both equitably. It was from the presidential level directly and clearly. And (OU President) Joe Harroz and (UT President) Jay Hartzell were both equally clear about their interest in joining the Southeastern Conference.
“As I recall, they said, ‘We’ve watched how you’ve led’ — which is a compliment to me — ‘and how our group has made decisions and how we’ve functioned, and they want to be a part of that.’ That’s as clear as I can be.”
In particular, Weiser asserted that the Longhorns’ decision wasn’t about finances but rather the optics of being in the SEC. He added that Oklahoma’s decision was more about following Texas than a desire to leave.
“I continue to maintain that the choice Texas made wasn’t a financial one,” Weiser said last week. “Because we all know what Texas resources are like. I think there was more about affiliating with a group of schools that — on a given Saturday, they would rather get beat by Alabama than they would Kansas State. Or Florida than Iowa State. That, I think, was really what was driving the way they looked out down the road.
“And in Oklahoma’s case, I’m not as convinced that that was the issue for them. I think they were more of what I would call ‘the reluctant bride’ that kind of felt like, ‘Wow, if we don’t go, what happens to the Texas-OU football game? Basketball?’ All the things that we know from an OU and Texas standpoint are really important,” Weiser said. “So, I kind of felt like if I was in Oklahoma’s case, it would’ve been hard for me not to think about the long term and don’t we want to be affiliated with Texas and now these other schools?”
Wherever the truth lies, it’s unlikely the last time this issue will be litigated in the court of public discourse as the two schools and conferences continue to bicker.
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