What Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC in 2024 means for the Florida Gators

The Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners joining the SEC a year early in 2024 will transform a league already renowned for its athletic excellence.

The new 16-team super league will add television eyeballs from two blueblood football programs that have combined for 11 national titles. It also coincides with the start of ESPN's 10-year, $300 billion football TV contract and The College Football Playoff's expansion from four to 12 teams.

Here's how Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC will impact the Florida Gators:

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New Football Rivalries

Florida hasn't played Texas in football since 1940 and has played Oklahoma just twice in school history - beating the Sooners in the 2008 BCS title game and losing to OU in the 2020 Cotton Bowl. Both schools will end up on Florida's schedule at some point before the end of the decade.

But Texas and OU joining the SEC could have a more profound effect on some of Florida's traditional rivalries. A formal announcement hasn't been made yet, but with the new 16-team conference, the SEC is expected to do away with divisions and move to a nine-game league schedule. Each school would have three permanent rivals they would face annually, then take on the other 12 schools on an every-other-year basis.

Under this format, Georgia and Tennessee are locks to remain as two of Florida's three permanent rivals. But UF's annual cross-division game with LSU could become a thing of the past. Geographically, it would make more sense for LSU to add Texas as a third permanent rival with Texas A&M and Arkansas.

Candidates for a third permanent rival for Florida under this format would include South Carolina, Kentucky and Auburn, which, despite being a five-hour drive from Gainesville, has played the Gators just four times since 2006. However, there was a time when Auburn was on UF's schedule every season.

More competition in non-revenue sports

Texas and Oklahoma are two well-rounded athletic programs that have traditions of excellence in women's and non-revenue sports.

Oklahoma has won five national championships in women's gymnastics since 2014, including a split-national championship with Florida in 2014. Last year, the Sooners beat the Gators in the NCAA Gymnastics Finals by .125 points.

This season, Florida is ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division 1 women's gymnastics. No. 1? You guessed it - Oklahoma.

In softball, Oklahoma has won four national championships since Florida won back-to-back national titles in 2014 and 2015.

Texas, meanwhile, excels in swimming and diving (14 national titles since 1983-84), women's volleyball (2012, 2022) and baseball (six national titles, the last coming over Florida in the 2005 College World Series finals).

More revenue for Florida's athletic department

Florida made a shade over $48 million ($48,130,503) in media rights revenue from the SEC in fiscal year 2021-22, according to its annual financial report to the NCAA.

With the $300,000 million annual football contract with ESPN and $512 million more in media rights annually coming from other sources, the media rights revenue boosts for schools will likely jump to $58-60 million, according to USA Today's Steve Berkowitz.

There is a catch. The SEC borrowed against the future ESPN football contract during the pandemic, a loan it could wind up repaying into the late 2020s. Even with that, and adding Texas and Oklahoma as partners, SEC schools are projected to make more money.