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.
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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.
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.
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.
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:
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
^
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...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...
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.
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.
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