Both shoes have dropped in the past 24 hours in the ground-shaking saga about where the Oklahoma football program will be pledging its allegiance in the near future. The Big 12 Executive Committee met by videoconference on Sunday with the presidents of both the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas. The meeting was […]
National award considerations for the 2021 season continue to pour in for players on the Oklahoma football roster. So far, 13 different Sooners have been named to watch lists for nine national individual awards. The latest to be added to the list of candidates are offensive linemen Marquis Hayes and Tyrese Robinson and defensive lineman […]
For those folks out there who may question that the success of Oklahoma football this season will be driven by an even strong defensive unit than we’ve seen the past two seasons, I submit the 2021 Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list as exhibit A. Three Oklahoma defensive players are preseason candidates for the 2021 Nagurski […]
Oklahoma football linebacker Nik Bonitto is drawing at lot of national attention before the first game is played kicking off the 2021 season. The Sooners junior outside linebacker was previously named as a preseason candidate for the Bednarik Award, which recognizes the best defensive player in college football, and on Monday it was revealed Bonitto […]
To not leave for the SEC puts nearly a century of commitment to college football at risk for the Sooners.
The Oklahoma Sooners are something of an anomaly in the world of college football.
Oklahoma isn’t a wealthy state. It doesn’t have a huge population base within its borders. You can drive from Norman to the Dallas Metroplex in a couple hours, but that’s about the extent of the football program’s natural advantages.
The Sooners have one of the richest histories in the sport, however, because the team became a source of pride for a downtrodden state nearly a century ago. They win big consistently thanks to a foundation laid by decades of sweat equity and support from people who haven’t had much spare. All fans like to think there’s something special about the relationship between their favorite teams and their states or communities. That’s more true about Oklahoma than most anywhere else.
As the Sooners prepare to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC, it’s worth noting that OU isn’t offering fertile recruiting territory or big TV markets. By adding Oklahoma to its ranks, the SEC is getting a product that will further burnish its reputation as the elite of the elite in college football. Quality is OU’s value proposition, in other words.
That also explains why the Big 12 has given the Sooners a great home – a much better one than it seems to get credit for. Its members may not all have access to the best raw materials, but their commitment to playing quality football manifests itself in a culture of innovation throughout the league.
In the process, the Big 12 has become the dominant influence on how football is played at all levels in the modern era. Many of its programs consistently punch well above their weight as a result. Despite having a better roster year in and year out, the Sooners have been forced to push the strategic envelope in their own right to stay on top of the conference.
That makes OU’s imminent defection to the SEC feel — in a sense — pretty shitty. Seeing OU take part in hastening the corporatization of college football is bad enough. It’s worse knowing how this move will likely impact the other Big 12 teams even though they didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, they did a lot right to help turn Big 12 football into something far more interesting than watching teams like Tennessee and LSU beat each other over the head for four quarters.
So would everyone be happier overall if OU had a change of heart? Some would say ‘yes’, and that includes some Sooner fans who have become accustomed to annual conference championships and double-digit wins.
But for better or worse, college football and the Sooners matter a lot to the school, its fan and the state of Oklahoma. Given the direction of the sport, to not make a move to the SEC now risks consigning the Sooners to a future in which everything they’ve built over time fades away. It’s become clear in recent years that a move elsewhere is simply a matter of financial survival. It’s not a choice that feels good, but there really isn’t a choice to be made.
It’s officially official. Oklahoma intends to leave the Big 12 Conference.
On a balmy Monday morning, the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns released a joint statement notifying the Big 12 Conference of their intentions not to renew their grants of media rights that are set to expire in 2025.
Since this whirlwind of a news cycle first began to roll last Wednesday, this was the expected next step for both OU and UT. Now, all signs point to the SEC being the destination site at the end of all of this.
So when will this move officially come into effect? Well, while Oklahoma and Texas ‘intend to honor’ their respective GOR agreements by remaining in the Big 12 through 2025, there is a very real chance that a transition could be made much sooner. Look no further than the wording. The unpredictable nature of this ‘rapidly evolving collegiate athletic landscape’ will ultimately dictate the speed of development as much as anything else, and with so many other programs involved, contractual adjustments are all but a foregone conclusion.
What we can say for certain is that this is officially the beginning of the end for the Big 12 as we know it. Whether the league can salvage what’s left of itself and add enough teams to hold its seat at the college football table is still to be determined. As for the SEC, the dawn of super conferences appears to be upon us. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point over the next calendar year the Big Ten, ACC and/or the Pac-12 follow suit to expand their own leagues. Whatever the case may be, and however it all shakes out, it figures to be a wild ride.
