Big 12 official: Texas is leaving conference so its losses will be to high-profile teams

This farewell tour will be taking place this fall at football stadiums around the Big 12 Conference.

Texas and Oklahoma will play their final season of football in the Big 12 this fall before heading to the Southeastern Conference.

At Big 12 media days this week, Deputy Commissioner Tim Weiser spoke with the KC Sports Network about the Longhorns and Sooners.

Weiser, who was Kansas State’s athletic director from 2001-08, said he didn’t believe OU and Texas were leaving because of money.

“I continue to maintain that the choice Texas made wasn’t a financial one, because we all know what Texas resources are like,” Weiser told the KC Sports Network. “I think theirs was more about affiliating with a group of schools that on a given Saturday, they would rather get beat by Alabama than they would Kansas State. Or Florida than Iowa State. That, I think was really what was driving the way they looked out down the road.”

The Longhorns last played in the Big 12 football championship game in 2018. Since then both Iowa State and K-State have appeared in the title game.

The Cyclones have won three of the last four meetings with Texas, but the Longhorns have won their last six games against K-State.

“In Oklahoma’s case, I’m not as convinced that that was the issue for them,” Weiser said. “I think they were more of what I would call the reluctant bride that kind of felt like, ‘Wow, if we don’t go, what happens to the Texas-OU football game, basketball?’ You know all the things we know from an OU and Texas standpoint are really important.

“So I kind of felt like, if I was in Oklahoma’s case, it would have been hard for me not to think about the long term and don’t we want to be affiliated with Texas and now these other schools?”

Those words didn’t sit well with many fans of Texas and Oklahoma. Here is a bit of what they shared on Twitter.