We’ve entered the period where it’s time to assess quite possibly the most significant migration of programs in the history of college football . Realignment has never seen anything like this despite its long, cluttered, painful history. As of Monday, it’s real and it’s spectacular: Texas and Oklahoma are not only playing up a class but operating by a different set of rules in the SEC.
“It’s probably like one silverback gorilla now running around with a bunch of other ones,” Texas president Jay Hartzell told CBS Sports.
How this romp by apex primates turns out is one of the biggest questions entering the 2024 season and beyond. Way beyond. This isn’t just another two-step out a conference side door. What you see before you are lifetime decisions made coldly, calculating and strategically over a period of years.
When word leaked in summer 2021 that Texas and Oklahoma were playing footsie with the SEC, it shocked the industry. As it turned out, that was just the opening act for the latest round of conference realignment that has consolidated power, brands and interest in the SEC and Big Ten.