Deep in the heart of Texas hearts have been broken.  Now more are about to be broken.

Last season the Houston Rockets and James Harden broke off an eight-plus-year relationship.  It had its ups and downs and ended without an NBA Championship. The decision was mutual to part.   Weeks later, J.J. Watt and the Houston Texans ended a ten-year relationship.  Together they had more down seasons, but J.J. could hold his head up high walking out of the door.

Fast forward to the now, and wow!

DeShaun Watson, the face of an otherwise faceless Houston Texans franchise wants out long term, but wants in short term.  Fall camp opens tomorrow and Watson’s headed there.  He won’t be there for long as the Texans will send him home to avoid more and more questions about their plans after the tumultuous offseason that Watson has had.

Failure to report would cost Watson a smooth 50k a day in fines.  Reporting, then being told you are no longer loved here saves him that same 50k a day.  Divorces can be messy and expensive you know.  It’ll get worse too.

Persona non-Grata Watson is untradable until his off-field civil and possibly criminal proceedings gain clarity.  But that hasn’t stopped the Texans from asking for all of the jewelry in the split.  The NFL rumor mill whispers that the Texans have floated that they want 5 high draft picks in exchange for Watson.  Marijuana isn’t legal in Texas yet, but the front office might be a bit high with this ask.

We’ll call Watson and the Texans situation a permanent split, final divorce settlement pending.  In these inflationary times, those massages have gotten more and more costly by the hour.

And these dysfunctional relationships are even happening at a younger age.  Colleges suddenly are breaking up, or at least they are about to.   It’s fully expected that the U of Texas and the U of Oklahoma will announce to the Big 12 league offices today that they plan to leave the Big 12 to join the SEC when their contract runs out after the 2024-5 season.

The schools were flirting with the SEC for six months behind closed doors prior to the affairs becoming public knowledge late last week.

Texas A&M liked joining the SEC ten years back. It had the State of Texas’ SEC dance floor all to itself.   Now UT wants to break in right in the middle of the slow song.  A&M doesn’t like to share the dance floor with Texas.  So the SEC and A&M have some hurt feelings to smooth over as well.

The buyout on the UT and Okla Big 12 deals is about 70mil a piece to exit prior to 2025.  But, the extra SEC money will soothe some of that pain and ESPN already jumped in to say they can help a bit as well.  Friends take sides in divorces.

A story broke this AM that the Big 12 is willing to look past this indiscretion and will offer each of the two schools an additional 1/2 of a tv share.  That would turn 37mil a year into 53mil or so for Texas and Oklahoma.

So, for the scorned(Baylor, Texas Tech, Okie St., etc.) the choices at the moment are 1) give up about 3mil a year a school to keep the two tv moneymakers, or 2) look for other suitors.  Relationships are built on compromise (read as lack of leverage).

Will it move the needle?  Follow the money.

The eyes of America are upon them as the eyes of Texas have been wandering.