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As Greg Sankey and the SEC prepare for Texas and Oklahoma to join the SEC, the conference commissioner made his way to Dallas Saturday for the Red River Rivalry between the Longhorns and Sooners.
Sankey met with media and had the chance to talk about transitioning the 2 teams into the SEC in 2024.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on the transition process for OU and Texas pic.twitter.com/PxWhdn8Ilu
— Jeff Patterson (@jeffpattOKC) October 7, 2023
Sankey said that he has been meeting with the Texas and Oklahoma presidents every 2 weeks since it was announced that the teams would join the conference back in July of 2021.
“The integration has been very intentional,” Sankey said. “We’ve had a long runway.”
This isn’t the first time Sankey has brought 2 Big 12 teams to the SEC. He was with the SEC in a different role in 2012 when Texas A&M and Missouri joined the conference, and he has used his experience from that transition to guide him in this one.
“We learned a lot from that experience, we kept all our notes,” Sankey said.
One of the biggest things he learned is to be patient with the process. In November of 2011, it was announced that Texas A&M and Missouri would join the SEC. Less than a year later, the 2 teams were a part of the conference. This time, he made sure to take things slower.
Sankey mentioned that he has been meeting with SEC athletics directors as well as Oklahoma and Texas’ athletics directors to discuss different issues and ensure everyone is at agreement.
He also made sure to be respectful of the Big 12. Obviously there is cause for celebration, but Sankey wanted to be respectful of the Big 12 during their last season with Texas and Oklahoma.
Sankey saw the matchup between Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday as the right time to begin that celebration rather than immediately after the decision was announced.
“I’m here just because it’s time and we learned that there’s an expectation at some point that we’ll celebrate,” Sankey said. “We did that immediately in College Station and Columbia. This has been a different dynamic.”