Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Which is exactly why I think this move to the sec is not as set in stone as some claim. Certainly you would have to think that the B1G and the PAC would have at least reached out to the two schools and more. Remember, Texas wanted to go to the PAC during the last round and wanted to bring A&M with them. I’m not sure but it seems like OU and oSU were being considered as well. Obviously that is a horrible geographic and cultural fit.

But really when you come down to it getting on a plane is getting on a plane. It would make so much more sense to break CFb out into its own entity and let the Olympic sports exist on their own plane in a conference dedicated just for that.

An OU fan from another board doesn't want to be in a Conference with Texas because they destroy every conference that they touch. He just wants to play them OOC, like they used to.

I can see the upside down Horns sign now
life is good

If it were only football, I'd like to see OU in the B1G.  Considering the warm weather sports, i.e. baseball, golf, softball, I like the SEC.  During the last realignment, I would have been glad to see OU and Texas go to different conferences.  I don't have any of those issues with OU and Texas going to the SEC and would be happy to see OU/UT as pod/division mates.

UGA - Tech
USCe - Clemson
FSU - UF, though they were never in the same conference.

Those are local rivalries of long standing. 

Yes, but none of those have been created in the past 4 decades-- specifically, since the NCAA stranglehold on television rights was broken by YOUR school (and Oklahoma) .

Historical rivalries have inertia.  But when you break that inertia, the dynamics change.

The sport is now national, not regional.  If you're looking to bolster your national brand, then giving up an annual OOC slot to a regional rival, means sacrificing a slot that could be played against a marquee intersectional national brand-name team.  That's something that's just not as attractive as it might have been 4 decades ago.

Texas is definitely staying with OU.

I've said for the past ten years that OU actually has the power in the relationship.  Texas was fine to stand pat in the B12, because Texas wanted to keep it more regional and not endure the far-flung travel associated with joining any of the other conferences, especially for the olympic sports. 

But OU has had wanderlust ever since 2010, I believe they felt they missed out in those two rounds of realignment and haven't been satisfied staying in the B12 ever since.

So I'd agree with the reports you've heard-- OU was going no matter what, and Texas' hand was forced, because we know we need them and the TX-OU rivalry, to maintain our sports brand.  Sure, an OOC rivalry could be set up, indeed the TX-OU rivalry existed as an OOC game for 8 decades before it become an in-conference game.  But there's risk to that-- it's not the 1920s anymore, and times are quite different.  How many rivalries have survived in the past 3 decades, when one or both teams switched to different conferences?

Anyway, if the B1G really wanted Texas, they'd need to be willing to take OU.  There are factions at OU that would have preferred the B1G all along, but the B1G wasn't overly receptive, given their academics.  If that has changed, then now would be the time for the B1G to make a push for both teams.

Very reasonable assessment, Utee.
Most OU fans would be surprised, I think, by the idea that OU holds the power in the OU-UT relationship.  But it's possible that you are correct about that.  Some OU fans fear Texas trickeration in the move to the SEC.  Like maybe Texas backs out at the last minute and goes independent, leaving OU in the lurch.  The same sort of fans aren't sure that OU would be a slam-dunk in going to the SEC by itself.
I don't know about wanderlust, but it is widely believed that former OU President Boren's major goal was to get OU into the B1G.  So much so that he submitted exaggerated false reports of endowments to improve OU's standing in the USN&WR rankings and gain AAU membership.
I suspect that the B1G could have had OU at any time prior to Boren's fall from grace and power.  The current leadership has not indicated its preferences until now.  Most Sooner fans would rather see OU in the SEC than the B1G.  (I wanted OU in the B1G West so that we could play Nebraska every year.)  I don't know if Texas was there for the taking or not.  You might have some sense about that.
Fearless might like this: Many people who claim to be in the know assert that the last straw was the Big 12 front office making no apparent effort to get Fox to move the OU-Nebraska game this fall out of the 11:00 time slot.  Whether that's true or not, I do not know.  But Sooner fans really hate that time slot, despite Fox's protestations that it's the slot for their premier game of the day.
I lament the breakup of the original Big 12.  Of course, I lament the passing of the old Big 8.  I'm into lamentations these days.

I agree with all of that, Utee.

And I agree with Thumper upthread.  I hope that OU and UT are pod-mates, if the SEC goes to pods.