HAHA. Their fanbase is always painful to watch.

Fify

It remains to be seen. But I think we can all agree the road to the FBS championship will be more difficult if OU joins the SEC.



With a 12 team playoff, I totally disagree with that statement. The SEC could easily get 3 or 4 teams in.

Money talks.

And this would be a financial windfall for all involved.

Given the fact that all universities have taken a huge financial hit over the last two years with perhaps more tough times ahead and with everything shifting heavily to streaming, revenue is what will drive all these decisions.

I heard speculation today (I believe it might have been Berry Tramel) that OU could expect to receive an extra $22 million per year in the SEC.

People, do not understand the financials of this deal. The next few tweaks SEC will probably make about $10M per school I under the current structure That’s BOUT 35m to b12 and 45m for sec for a few years. In two years ESPN bought the top sec game of the week for #$3b for the best game of the week. That will up the pay In Two years to around $60M per team. All I’m the while, the Big 12 won’t get nw extension. Even though ESPN didn’t have want to extend b12, that was the writing on the wall were over paid on the last deal and sureley won’t get as the current deal. ESPN Will facilitate the OU TX buyout, knowing they will not py the 8 BIG12 teams squat.

Well Florida was missing a lot of players who opted to sit out and Trask had a bad game, which I admit could happen any day.

It remains to be seen. But I think we can all agree the road to the FBS championship will be more difficult if OU joins the SEC.

And we can't sleep on LSU, Georgia, Florida, even Auburn and South Carolina have their seasons.

With OU in the conference, those schools will start to lose out on recruits.

And you’re making excuses for Florida. If the SEC is as good and deep as everyone acts like it is…Florida should’ve just been able to reload and at least be competitive. They weren’t even close and got run out of the stadium. That’s the team Florida is putting on the field this season. One or two years in and OU will be treating the SEC like Alabama does. Not being able to say “we’re In the SEC” is one of the few things keeping us below Alabama. We have the number 5 recruiting class for 2022 and the number 2 for 2023…do you really think those numbers won’t get a boost when we join the SEC?

Mark my words…assuming Riley stays for awhile we will own that conference within 3-5 years.

And with a 12 team playoff, what are we all agreeing on? The sec will routinely get 3-4 teams in the playoff…how is being the top 4 in the Alabama Conference any more difficult than winning the Big 12?

The defeatist attitude among some OU fans is asinine. If you don’t want to compete against the best and let the chips fall where they may…you should probably pick a different team to follow.

lol... as a guy who watches most of the games on tv, i actually like the 11am games... i get to watch and then get on with my day.

i'll show myself out. : )

as someone that goes to lots of games i also like 11am .. so i can go to the game and still have the rest of my day ...


man i must be gettting old. .. lol

It's horrid on recruiting.

You can't get kids and their families there in time for the game. That's a very big deal and why OU pitches a fit (to no avail in the Big 12).

this is the entire reason .... high school games are on friday nights ... so if the recruit is flying in (or even driving in from 3 hours away) it is hard/impossible to make an 11am game.

I'll weigh in. I VOTE Big 10 instead of SEC. First, I am not a Southern Guy. Would much prefer to travel to Ann Arbor, ILL, NW in Chicago than MS, MSU, Vanderbilt etc. Plus the Cache of B10 far exceeds SEC. OU has the clout to do this,, I hope they look hard at the B10

I've been saying for quite a few years that College Football is dead. It's non existent. (Except for the little podunk colleges).

College Football has been Semi-Pro for years. That's a fact!

Let's just call it what it is. Semi-Pro Football, where the taxpayers and others foot the bill.

I've always agreed it is wrong to have football players on scholarship who are forbidden to get a part time job, etc, some are in dire shape because their families are dirt poor and can't help them. They can't even scrap up two nickels to rub together, let along get enough $$$ to go out on a date and have some fun. That's wrong.

Every year for quite some time, we're seeing more and more movement towards paying student athletes. Some money is fine, but that's not where this is going.

Fans want "their" team to do well, Boosters do too.

This will not end well. It WILL become programs oriented out in the open for Semi Pro Teams.
.

Personally, I think the SEC is the best place for us to go. Now I'm not pretending to be any sort of expert on recruiting or what not, but I think a move to the Big10 might cut off most of our Texas or southern recruiting and then where would we be? I just have to look at Nebraska and see that they've been essentially cut off of the flow of recruits from Texas and look at them now. There's no draw for players and their families to go to Nebraska when they can (seemingly soon) sign with Texas and play in "the best" conference in the SEC and and basically stay at home in Texas. I can see the same thing happening to OU if they took off to the north. Texas historically has been the state that OU constantly recruits. Staying in the SEC they can tell a recruit hey, you can come here to your back yard and play in the best league, be part of our rich tradition and history, and your parents can watch you on TV all the time or come to several games throughout the year. Now some players like to leave and cross the country from their homes to play at schools, but I believe many of them prefer to stay in their general region. I do think that we can even start poaching some of those 5-star players from Florida and other parts of the SE because now they'd still be in the SEC and for the other aforementioned reasons. On the other hand, I do think that our prestige and classiness belongs in the Big10, but I just look at the whole recruiting thing. When I think of SEC I do NOT think of class and finesse, rather 'snake pit', dirty, cheating, etc. I'll stop myself before I go down that road I know cheating and stuff is everywhere, but IDK. But OU and Texas does bring major class to the SEC.

Keep in mind also that Saban is likely going to retire in the next 5 years or so. The biggest risk for OU is that Riley leaves for the NFL at some point in the future.

Personally, I think the SEC is the best place for us to go. Now I'm not pretending to be any sort of expert on recruiting or what not, but I think a move to the Big10 might cut off most of our Texas or southern recruiting and then where would we be? I just have to look at Nebraska and see that they've been essentially cut off of the flow of recruits from Texas and look at them now. There's no draw for players and their families to go to Nebraska when they can (seemingly soon) sign with Texas and play in "the best" conference in the SEC and and basically stay at home in Texas. I can see the same thing happening to OU if they took off to the north. Texas historically has been the state that OU constantly recruits. Staying in the SEC they can tell a recruit hey, you can come here to your back yard and play in the best league, be part of our rich tradition and history, and your parents can watch you on TV all the time or come to several games throughout the year. Now some players like to leave and cross the country from their homes to play at schools, but I believe many of them prefer to stay in their general region. I do think that we can even start poaching some of those 5-star players from Florida and other parts of the SE because now they'd still be in the SEC and for the other aforementioned reasons. On the other hand, I do think that our prestige and classiness belongs in the Big10, but I just look at the whole recruiting thing. When I think of SEC I do NOT think of class and finesse, rather 'snake pit', dirty, cheating, etc. I'll stop myself before I go down that road I know cheating and stuff is everywhere, but IDK. But OU and Texas does bring major class to the SEC.

Really good points

If these SEC rumors are true, goodbye to a lot of regional games in Stillwater, Fort Worth, Waco, and Arlington. Those games will now be in College Station, Starkville, Columbia, and Atlanta. Will OKC host the SEC softball tournament? Seems like a lot of local and regional stuff will be lost.

I personally like the move. It seemed like a lot of the "regional" stuff was mostly located in Texas, so doesn't feel like much of a loss to me. I think long term it's good for OU's brand, continues to show they want to compete at the highest level, and if it leads to them getting away from the NCAA, that's a good thing IMO.

If these SEC rumors are true, goodbye to a lot of regional games in Stillwater, Fort Worth, Waco, and Arlington. Those games will now be in College Station, Starkville, Columbia, and Atlanta. Will OKC host the SEC softball tournament? Seems like a lot of local and regional stuff will be lost.

We will also be losing games in Ames and Morgantown.

The Texas game will stay in Dallas, College Station is obviously in Texas, would likely be playing in Fayetteville, Baton Rouge and Columbia.

That's still a lot of regional games. And we have been playing 2-3 games in the DFW area every single year. Would be nice to go to Atlanta and New Orleans and maybe Houston.

Will OKC host the SEC softball tournament? Seems like a lot of local and regional stuff will be lost.

OKC would be in a good position to host the SEC softball tournament as well as the WCWS. Many current SEC teams regularly make that trip to our city during the WCWC; it is the best softball venue in the country. Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa where the tournament has been held consistently since 2001 only seats 3,940. Hall of Fame Stadium's capacity is 12,400.

Money talks will be premise behind OU & UT joining the SEC. TA&M will just have to suck it up.

Remember if the SEC becomes a 16 team Super Conference there's also the possibility of the SEC championship game being alternated between Atlanta & Dallas since both cities have retractable roof stadiums with seating capacity of 71,000 and 80,000 respectively.

ESPN article (https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31868545/source-oklahoma-sooners-texas-longhorns-verge-making-sec-move):


Texas and Oklahoma could make their move to the SEC official in a matter of weeks, ESPN has confirmed.

The Austin American-Statesman reported Friday that a Big 12 source believed talks between the SEC and the two schools had been ongoing for more than six months

^^
Wow! Talks have been ongoing for at least SIX MONTHS! And to keep the secret for that long! Probably cloak and dagger-type meetings to be undetected for this long! This is incredible. It's bound to happen at this point. The article even talks about buying out the grant of rights, etc. Crazy!!

Also, I do like the what would be new regional games you mentioned in an earlier post. Renews the old rivalries with OU/ARK/Tex, etc.

On a different note, we may not lose the OU/OSU game. Remember OU and Texas were long in different conferences and have kept the love between the two alive! But then again, with a larger league and more games, it may not work out just for that reason. IDK

OU and Texas have long been in bed together. They've retained the relationship through the marriage and breakups of conferences; OU was the lone school that was cool with them getting their own network (Longhorn Network); they always seem to talk good about each other in the press.

It sounds like this has been going on for a while and then someone from A&M got wind and leaked it to the Houston Chronicle in order to have time and ammunition to try and block Texas.

Even if A&M maintains that position, if they can't get several other schools to go along with them (and in the process sacrifice tens of millions every single year) they may end up voting for both schools anyway so it doesn't look like they are scared crybabies.

Now that this is out of the bag, you'd expect a decision to be made relatively soon so everyone can plan accordingly. Even if it does happen, both schools would certainly stay in the Big 12 for 2021/22 and maybe another year beyond that.

I really do wonder what OSU will do here. Hopefully they can get a good landing spot

It sounds like this has been going on for a while and then someone from A&M got wind and leaked it to the Houston Chronicle in order to have time and ammunition to try and block Texas.

Even if A&M maintains that position, if they can't get several other schools to go along with them (and in the process sacrifice tens of millions every single year) they may end up voting for both schools anyway so it doesn't look like they are scared crybabies.

Now that this is out of the bag, you'd expect a decision to be made relatively soon so everyone can plan accordingly. Even if it does happen, both schools would certainly stay in the Big 12 for 2021/22 and maybe another year beyond that.

I read that only 11 of the 14 teams have to vote yes. So A&M and Mizzou saying no doesn’t matter. After six months of talks it sounds like it is a done deal.

Now for the “when”

^

The conference had a zoom call yesterday to try and get a plan together and OU and Texas declined to participate.

You can bet the 8 other schools have been on the phone to multiple conferences.

Tramel wrote yesterday that OSU suspected this was in the works six weeks ago when both OU & Texas voted against extending the conference TV deal.

Kansas is already exploring joining the Big Ten, which basketball wise makes a lot of sense

https://www.maizenbrew.com/2021/7/23/22590430/realignment-rumblings-kansas-sets-up-call-with-big-ten-conference.

I do wonder where OSU ultimately ends up. Mountain West/Sun Belt would be a downgrade, PAC-12 might be too far geographically...

Kansas is already exploring joining the Big Ten, which basketball wise makes a lot of sense
makes sense... if the big ten can't land notre dame (i think they'll end up in the acc), i could see iowa state going with them.

I'll weigh in. I VOTE Big 10 instead of SEC. First, I am not a Southern Guy. Would much prefer to travel to Ann Arbor, ILL, NW in Chicago than MS, MSU, Vanderbilt etc. Plus the Cache of B10 far exceeds SEC. OU has the clout to do this,, I hope they look hard at the B10

OU does not have the academic pedigree to join the Big 10. Texas would be a much better fit for the B1G.

The Big 10 let Nebraska join. I don't think Academic Pedigree really matters, at least not nearly as much as $$$ and athletic department depth.

About regional games, the last visiting team to sell out their ticket allotment in Norman was Ohio State. The only team that brings their band now to Norman the past few years is OSU.
While OU fans travels, the other 8 schools do not.

OU can schedule 2-1 vs UTSA, Houston, SMU, Texas State, North Texas if they want to have games in Texas.
Also remember before the big12 OU didnt play games in Texas besides OU/TX and OU was just fine with recruiting in Texas.

About regional games, the last visiting team to sell out their ticket allotment in Norman was Ohio State. The only team that brings their band now to Norman the past few years is OSU.
While OU fans travels, the other 8 schools do not.

OU can schedule 2-1 vs UTSA, Houston, SMU, Texas State, North Texas if they want to have games in Texas.
Also remember before the big12 OU didnt play games in Texas besides OU/TX and OU was just fine with recruiting in Texas.

As long as Riley is there I doubt OU will have any problems recruiting.

More and more reports from credible outlets that OU & Texas to the SEC will be announced next week; maybe even be within 48 hours.

The expected vote is 13-1 with only A&M objecting.

If this happens I would expect TCU, Texas Tech, OSU, and Baylor to join the pac 12. Make an east (usc, ucla, stanford, cal, oregon, oregon state, washington, washington state) and west (arizona, asu, colorado, utah, tcu, texas tech, baylor, ok state)

I would think Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa state would eventually get eaten by the Big 10. Maybe West Virginia. Or West Virginia and Notre Dame would join the ACC.

The Big 10 would never take K-State or WV, as both have bad academics.

I'm not sure the Pac 12 would take the others for the same reason and in the case of TCU and especially Baylor, their religious ties.

These are the latest academic rankings by US News:

HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/academics072321.jpg

I dunno, I think the days of choosing schools because of academics are past us. The big 10 added Rutgers and Maryland and while yes they are good academic schools, to me the actually devalued the perceptive brand of the big 10. I think Nebraska helped but holy crap they are terrible now.

I dunno, I think the days of choosing schools because of academics are past us. The big 10 added Rutgers and Maryland and while yes they are good academic schools, to me the actually devalued the perceptive brand of the big 10. I think Nebraska helped but holy crap they are terrible now.

Look at the numbers above; Maryland and Rutgers are both excellent state universities and when the Big 10 admitted Nebraska they were still part of the AAU.

The Pac took lowly Oregon St. and Washington St. because of the package deal with U of Oregon and U-dub.

Academics do matter to conferences except the Big 12 and maybe the SEC.

Look at the numbers above; Maryland and Rutgers are both excellent state universities and when the Big 10 admitted Nebraska they were still part of the AAU.

The Pac took lowly Oregon St. and Washington St. because of the package deal with U of Oregon and U-dub.

Academics do matter to conferences except the Big 12 and maybe the SEC.

Another +1 and zeros

After OU and UT go to the SEC there will be 8 teams left in the Big12 and 8 openings total in the ACC, Big10 and PAC12 if they want to create 4 16 team conferences. Doesn't it seem logical that the conferences will somehow make that happen?

Look at the numbers above; Maryland and Rutgers are both excellent state universities and when the Big 10 admitted Nebraska they were still part of the AAU.

The Pac took lowly Oregon St. and Washington St. because of the package deal with U of Oregon and U-dub.

Academics do matter to conferences except the Big 12 and maybe the SEC.

Pretty sure wsu and osu were original pac-10 members.

Pretty sure wsu and osu were original pac-10 members.

Yes, that's correct.

Even original to the Pac 8.

Also just saw on ESPN that the PAC12 has stated that they are "Interested in taking in new members".

My best guess:

KU and ISU to the Big Ten
OSU, Tech, TCU, K-State to the Pac-12
WVU and Cincy to the ACC
Baylor to the AAC

Also just saw on ESPN that the PAC12 has stated that they are "Interested in taking in new members".

Wow, this seems to be moving fast! But I guess it’s not that fast if things have been in the works for 6 months now.

Given the even bigger power of the SEC if this comes to pass, the other conferences are going to have to step up.

Given the even bigger power of the SEC if this comes to pass, the other conferences are going to have to step up.

Yep, that’s why it seems fairly likely IMO that everyone is going to go to 16 teams in short order. Arguably the fact that the Big XII stayed at ten for a decade is why this is happening in the first place.

^

Big 12 was lucky to get to 10 after the 4 schools left.

Took TCU and West Virginia which are both pretty weak.

The conference has been on life support for some time.

These are the latest academic rankings by US News:

HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/academics072321.jpg

As a graduate, I am disappointed OU’s academic ranking is so low and apparently the state and university leadership is ok with mediocrity

As a graduate, I am disappointed OU’s academic ranking is so low and apparently the state and university leadership is ok with mediocrity

It's been a bit better in the past but the saddest thing about looking at that chart is how almost every other state has at least one excellent university while Oklahoma has none.

OU would not be last in any of those other conferences except tied with Nebraska. For that mater Kansas wouldn't be last in any, and Kansas State would only be last in the Big 10. Just saying almost everybody has worse members that are already there.

I suspect conferences will shift into a different mode if OU & Texas join the SEC and start adding schools they wouldn't normally admit.

My best guess:

KU and ISU to the Big Ten
OSU, Tech, TCU, K-State to the Pac-12
WVU and Cincy to the ACC
Baylor to the AAC
Yeah. But Baylor not in the "Power 4". Yes they have had issues lately but they've also been a decent to good FB program even with the scandals. Personally I'd love to see them fade into oblivion for their lack of control. I'm just not sure that will happen.

Yeah. But Baylor not in the "Power 4". Yes they have had issues lately but they've also been a decent to good FB program even with the scandals. Personally I'd love to see them fade into oblivion for their lack of control. I'm just not sure that will happen.

Big Ten won’t take them due to geography. Pac-12 won’t take them due to their overtly religious profile (as opposed to TCU which is mostly a religious school in name only). It’ll all depend on whether or not they can make a better impression on the ACC than Cincinnati, IMO. I actually tend to think Baylor would do fine in the AAC. They’d likely continue to be a basketball powerhouse and would also stand to go 9-3 or better in football most years. And I personally don’t have much ill will against Baylor now after they cleaned house back in 2016. Enjoyed seeing them win March Madness a few months back. Just stating what I feel is the most likely outcome. The main reason Baylor got into the Big XII in the first place was due to having a lot of influence in Texas politics back in the mid-90’s, and that influence is much less now.

As a graduate, I am disappointed OU’s academic ranking is so low and apparently the state and university leadership is ok with mediocrity

Gotta invest in the school. Not a popular thing here.

I do think OU Health is a good step forward and Harroz will do good work. Going to fight and uphill battle though.

Big Ten won’t take them due to geography. Pac-12 won’t take them due to their overtly religious profile (as opposed to TCU which is mostly a religious school in name only). It’ll all depend on whether or not they can make a better impression on the ACC than Cincinnati, IMO. I actually tend to think Baylor would do fine in the AAC. They’d likely continue to be a basketball powerhouse and would also stand to go 9-3 or better in football most years. And I personally don’t have much ill will against Baylor now after they cleaned house back in 2016. Enjoyed seeing them win March Madness a few months back. Just stating what I feel is the most likely outcome. The main reason Baylor got into the Big XII in the first place was due to having a lot of influence in Texas politics back in the mid-90’s, and that influence is much less now.
All this is accurate and makes sense. But Baylor has spent the last ? years working on becoming a national FB program. Not being in the new "Power 4" would be a big kick in the nuts. Will non "Power 4" teams have a shot at the possible 12 team playoff?

These are the latest academic rankings by US News:

HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/academics072321.jpg

US News rankings are not very reliable.

What the BIG 10 cares about is AAU membership. Nebraska is the only school in the BIG 10 that isn't a member, and when they were a AAU member when they moved but lost membership soon after. The only AAU members in the Big 12 are Texas, KU and ISU.

https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members

US News rankings are not very reliable.

What the BIG 10 cares about is AAU membership. Nebraska is the only school in the BIG 10 that isn't a member, and when they were a AAU member when they moved but lost membership soon after. The only AAU members in the Big 12 are Texas, KU and ISU.

https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members

It's as reliable as any academic metric and I included the numbers just to provide a general perspective.

Everyone knows it's not a scientific measure.

I’m usually very bad at this stuff, but here’s my guess:

OU and Tex to the SEC
KU and ISU to the Big Ten
OSU and Tech to the Pac-12
WVU and Baylor to the AAC
TCU to Sunbelt
KSU to MAC

Gotta invest in the school. Not a popular thing here.

I do think OU Health is a good step forward and Harroz will do good work. Going to fight and uphill battle though.

I haven't seen analysis but l would have to think the additional revenue from being in the SEC would be significantly higher. Since OU doesn't have a significant number of large corporate donors like schools back east and on the west coast, OU athletics should be able to get a significant boost in funding just from athletics revenue.

Hopefully, better game times and greater visiting fan following can benefit local businesses and virtually every game would be a "big" game.

OU does not have the academic pedigree to join the Big 10. Texas would be a much better fit for the B1G.

Guarantee you that if something falls through on the SEC deal, OU & UT will both be invited to both the Big 10 and ACC. It's laughable to think that academics would hold a conference up from adding either of those teams if they think they have a shot at adding their athletic programs and huge fan bases. It's all about strengthening your conference at this point and OU & UT are the last two major programs that are interested in switching conferences.

I haven't seen analysis but l would have to think the additional revenue from being in the SEC would be significantly higher. Since OU doesn't have a significant number of large corporate donors like schools back east and on the west coast, OU athletics should be able to get a significant boost in funding just from athletics revenue.

Hopefully, better game times and greater visiting fan following can benefit local businesses and virtually every game would be a "big" game.

A lot of you guys are suffering from that new car smell just a bit. If things work out like has been discussed with an East/west division in the SEC, you would likely have the following in your league:

1. Texas
2. Texas a&m
3. Arkansas
4. Ole Miss
5. Miss St
6. Mizzou
7. LSU

You will have some big hitters in there, and it is a step up from the big 12. However, you’re a long way from “every game is a big game.”

Edit: changed my mistakes on the expected teams in the west division.

Guarantee you that if something falls through on the SEC deal, OU & UT will both be invited to both the Big 10 and ACC. It's laughable to think that academics would hold a conference up from adding either of those teams if they think they have a shot at adding their athletic programs and huge fan bases. It's all about strengthening your conference at this point and OU & UT are the last two major programs that are interested in switching conferences.

I don't think anything is stopping OU going to the SEC. It's Texas A&M and Missouri that might attempt to block Texas.

If OU and UT are bound together, I'm sure the BIG10 would take OU as well with a plan to increase research dollars at OU to gain admittance to the AAU. If they aren't going as a pair, would OU still go to the SEC alone?

Slow week on the Sports Animal. It's all they are talking about. Mark, Jim and Al taking vacation too.