Auburn football: Winners and losers of Oklahoma and Texas SEC jumps

Loser: Texas A&M

The Aggies are not happy that Texas and Oklahoma are seemingly following them after TAMU escaped the two in 2012 during the last SEC realignment. There is now a frayed relationship with the conference, but it is not one that will cause the two to terminate the partnership.

Instead, Texas A&M wants to appear ready. Too bad the damage may be done and that may be a tall task after their public displeasure with more local and familiar competition returning to the picture.

The Aggies are rumored to be the one school likely to veto the OU/UT move, meaning they will go down as the one team that was against what could be the first major step towards a mini collegiate sports monopoly for the SEC.

Wanting to not have in-state competition is a loser’s mentality, even if they no longer hold that stance.

Losers: Other Big 12 member schools

The true losers we want to focus on here are the schools that will be losing their biggest games on the calendar should this OU/UT exit one day be finalized. West Virginia, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Iowa State, and Oklahoma State (not the two P5 Kansas programs) will all undeservedly lose their biggest cash cow contests.

This move may lead to even more exoduses from the Big 12 if there isn’t a bold and cohesive plan to move forward past the losses.

Losers: College football purists

College football is starting to look pretty unfamiliar to longtime fans. The Big 12’s death would be jarring and signal that the times are rapidly changing.

Optimistically assuming the conference survives, it’s going to be a much different power balance across the country. The sport as we know it would be drastically different.

Ohio State and Michigan (and to a lesser degree FSU and Clemson) following Texas and Oklahoma’s collective lead would be the death knell to what we know as normal.