You're referring to the Grant of Rights. The Big 12 members signed their 1st tier rights to the conference until 2025 so that if a member leaves, the rights to their games remain with the conference. That is why the date 2025 comes up when talking about OU/TX leaving. That is in addition to the exit penalties. In theory, it sounds like a real sticking point. In reality, not so much.
A former poster, Pirate's Roost had some very good legal explanations why.
Yes, exactly. I wish he were still around, I'd love to hear his take on these current goings-on.
I'm no attorney, but in lay terms, it looks like this. Texas and OU announce their intent to go to the SEC and, let's say, it starts in the Fall of 2022. They've "granted their rights" of television broadcasting to the B12 through 2025.
But on September 3rd, 2022, when the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks show up in Austin, it's the SEC's broadcasting crew from either CBS or ESPN or SECN that shows up to televise the game. It's not the B12's broadcasting crew from Fox. There's no "television broadcasting police" that is going to show up and force Texas to allow a Fox crew to broadcast it.
So for the remainder of the 2022 season, Texas broadcasts its home games through the SEC's contracts with Disney and CBS. At the end of the SEC fiscal year, the SEC pays Texas its portion of the total SEC distribution for all sports broadcasting. That money is in Texas' hands, not the B12's.
Now, the B12 could withhold the prior year's distribution, since those don't go out until the end of the fiscal year and I think that happens sometime in the summer. And the B12 could also sue Texas and OU for whatever portion of the SEC distribution they feel covers the GOR contractual obligation.
But in reality, suing a public university is extremely difficult, and it's expensive, and consequently it never gets that far. In the end, it's just another negotiated settlement that ultimately will end up being less than the stated contractual amount, and most likely it will be significantly less.
