Shehan Jeyarajah

Man, none of these conferences are going to exist like this in 15 years.

Let's hope that the answer is we bring back the Southwest Conference.

But I do think that more likely than not that –

I think the Big 12 is going to kind of exist as a high-quality third league that understands it's not the top two.

I think that Texas Tech probably exists in some version of that that exists today.

Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, I think that, first of all, I mean, for this upcoming season, it's very unlikely.

And the other thing, too, is that to even make a change for next year, that decision would have to be made by December 1st.

And right now, I mean, the reality is, right, there are two giant stakeholders who will make that decision, one the Big Ten, one the SEC, and the SEC is holding out.

And

If they don't decide to move to 24, like, they're happy to stay at 12.

Their preferred number is still 16.

They would like it to expand just a little bit.

But, you know, ultimately, the SEC really does hold essentially a veto in this.

And so, you know, like you said, there's been a lot of momentum to get to 24.

I think that a lot of the other stakeholders are kind of rallying around that number.

But until the SEC decides that they're open to it, it doesn't look like it's going to change soon.

Yeah, I mean, I think that they just feel like 24 is too big is just a big part of it.

Right.

And I think that there's also a little bit of a proxy war going on as well between not just the Big Ten and SEC, but also ESPN and Fox, who are the two primary stakeholders, of course, in the television rights market.