Auburn football: FanSided says OU, UT could play for SEC by 2022-23

With Oklahoma and Texas officially announcing that they will not be renewing their grant of media rights agreement that expires in 2025, things could be changing for the Auburn football program and the SEC as soon as the 2022-23 season according to fellow FanSided author John Buhler.

Though the Sooners and Longhorns are insisting that they will wait out the remaining years in their contract in the Big-12, it’s looking more likely that they’ll pay the millions of dollars in exit fees than play four more seasons in their current conference.

"As far as scheduling, this could be coming as soon as the 2022-23 academic year. There is no way the Big 12 will let them off the hook this college football season. Plus, there’s not enough time to completely revamp two Power Five conference’s season schedules."

With 2021 schedules set in stone for most teams, it would be far too messy and difficult for the Sooners and Longhorns to trade conferences ahead of this season. They’ll likely take another year in the Big-12 and begin the 2022 season with a revamped, CFB-powerhouse loaded schedule.

Auburn football’s 2022 season schedule is already tentatively full, but that would most likely be re-arranged pretty quickly should OU and UT end up playing in the southeast. The Tigers’ non-conference games in 2022 are set against Mercer, San Jose State, Western Kentucky, and Penn State to close out the home-and-home series.

Things get a little easier in 2023 when the Tigers have only two non-conference opponents already scheduled in New Mexico State and Cal, which could potentially open up spots for more conference games if that ends up being the arrangement.

With the huge amounts of money no doubt involved in this deal, a one-year turnaround doesn’t seem too far out of reach. As early as 2022, we could see Oklahoma and/or Texas on the Auburn football schedule.