Well the SEC has closed is deal with ABC for T1 rights to the tune of somewhere over 3 billion for 10 years. Neither the SEC nor ESPN will reveal the final amount and claim they want to see it kept secret for now. We know that the combined contracts will come to around 64.2 million per school per year at the minimum and could be more.

This places the SEC as of 2024 10 million ahead of the Big 10 pending their new contract. Ten to eleven million ahead of Texas with the LHN figured in. And around 17 million ahead of Oklahoma and slightly more for the rest of the Big 12. It also places the SEC about 32 million ahead of the ACC and just slightly more than that ahead of the PAC.

We also know that Vanderbilt is promising to update facilities and spend enough to be competitive. I'll believe it when I see it because I've heard this song and dance many times before, but with the new money maybe it happens.

So the SEC will be at 14. That leaves us with only 2 available targets for realignment both of which fit the SEC profile. Texas and Oklahoma. Texas likely prefers to keep things together and Oklahoma will likely want to move for the money. The Big 10 will be interested in them but they fit the SEC's sports profile a lot better than they fit that of the Big 10, they aren't AAU, aren't ranked academically as high as Nebraska, and the Big 10 has to consider that they could wind up like the Huskers and not really be worth the investment for them long term.

But the deal is if Oklahoma decides to leave it diminishes the value of the Big 12 to the extent that it could force the hand of Texas in making a move.

ESPN's profile is to want all of the key schools in a large state so what happens to Baylor, T.C.U. and Tech? Well there's always the AAC which is also controlled by ESPN. Maybe WVU gets an ACC invite, maybe not. But the fact remains that for football the majority of value of football for the Big 12 is tied up in these two schools and both add to the SEC's bottom line, both are state flagships, and Texas is AAU.

So the ballgame until 2035 will be can anyone get Oklahoma to move and is Texas then forced to weigh options.

I like where the SEC is on both of these. The gist of these 97 pages keeps coming back to the same two after we explore ancillary scenarios and after the SEC's new big deal it comes right back to them again.

2023 isn't that far away, let's put COVID behind us and see how this much money makes things shake out!