Steve Spurrier on Texas joining SEC: ‘They can’t win the Big 12 anyway’
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There aren’t many coaches in college football that understand the SEC better than Florida and South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier. His Florida teams in the late 90s practically ran the conference back then. On Wednesday, Spurrier addressed the possibility of Oklahoma and Texas linking up with the SEC. He said he understood why the Longhorns made the leap.
“They get to play Texas A&M again,” he said, according to Sports Illustrated. “They get to, they can’t win the Big 12 anyway. I think they’ve only won in the last 30 years or so. So I can see Texas jumping over — more money, playing A&M, this, that and the other.”
Spurrier was slightly off about how many times Texas has won the Big 12. It won the first Big 12 conference championship game in 1996 and took home the title in 2005 and 2009. But the Longhorns have struggled recently.
He also spoke about the Sooners potentially leaving for the SEC, too.
“They are the champion of the Big 12. I mean, they win it almost every year. They’ve won what 4, 5 in a row, something like that,” Spurrier said. “I just don’t think they are going to come over to the SEC and win with any regularity the way they win the Big 12. Their fans, they may say, ‘Yeah, now we can beat Alabama and LSU and all these dudes.’ It may not happen like that.”
It’s likely for the first couple years in the SEC if accepted that the two programs will have to adjust the way they recruit because the conference is a line of scrimmage league.
However, Spurrier understood these shifts were all about the money. He added that he feels for the other Big 12 schools because they need Texas and Oklahoma.
The SEC is expected to vote on whether to accept the Longhorns and the Sooners Thursday afternoon.
