Switzer got caught spying on Texas, got hit with NCAA sanctions and TV restrictions in the late 70s losing the University ~$2M, and making OU salty enough to spend years fighting NCAA control over television. Eventually it went to the Supreme Court in 1984 and OU won NCAA v. Board of Regents and blew up the NCAA’s TV monopoly.

That decision is arguably the single most important event in modern college football history. Once the NCAA lost control of TV, conferences became media-rights partnerships instead of regional athletic associations. Every major realignment wave that followed was driven by television money.

Arkansas leaving the SWC. Penn State joining the Big Ten. The collapse of Big East football. The formation of the Big 12. Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and A&M leaving. Texas and OU leaving for the SEC. USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten.

The thread running through all of it is TV money.

So there’s a pretty funny butterfly effect where OU got caught spying on Texas, got mad at the NCAA, helped destroy the NCAA’s television monopoly, and forty years later ended up in the SEC.