The OU Board of Regents made it official on Friday — the university will leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference in 2024.

The board met to approve the move, which will happen following the 2023-24 school year — one year earlier than expected. Oklahoma, along with the University of Texas, initially announced in 2021 their joint decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC in 2025.

However an earlier exit became imminent in February after several stakeholders, including OU, Texas and the Big 12, announced that an agreement had been reached for the schools to depart in 2024. The Texas board of regents approved the move earlier this week.

Both universities will officially join the SEC on July 1, 2024.

“Well (an early exit has been) a discussion point since our announcement of seeking membership in the SEC and wanting to do the right thing with our remaining time in the Big 12 Conference, which is something that very few, if any schools, have ever done in conference realignment,” OU athletic director Joe Castiglione told reporters. “We wanted to fulfill our contractual obligation, leave on good terms and we knew those obligations would carry through the 24-25 academic year.

“But as time as gone on since that announcement, you all know that a lot more has taken place around college athletics — other conference realignment, other matters related to member institutions in various leagues and how we’re going to navigate the future. So it became more and more apparent to everybody involved that once they made certain decisions (about) what they wanted to do with conferences beyond our time in the Big 12, that it might be to everyone’s benefit for us to talk about a path to leave a year early.

“And I think that gets down to the reason why we’re leaving early because in the end, it’s in everybody’s best interest and we did it through a collaborative effort with everybody… So there’s a lot of conversations, (there) were a lot of conversations over a period of time and I think everybody agrees for everybody’s best interest going forward, this is a great decision.”