A question Oklahoma fans are surely asking about Lincoln Riley today

The SEC is using an 8-game league schedule for 2024. If Lincoln Riley knew the SEC wouldn’t go to 9 games, would he have left for USC?

We wouldn’t speculate about Oklahoma football just for the sake of the exercise. We’re very much focused on USC football around here and enjoying what Lincoln Riley has done for the Trojans in a relatively short period of time. However, one thing happened on Thursday which has invited a delicious, irresistible, impossible-to-ignore question about Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma.

That one thing: The SEC approved an eight-game conference schedule for the 2024 college football season, when Oklahoma and Texas join the conference.

Sooners Wire has more on the story:

“According to Chuck Dunlap, SEC communications director, SEC members will be required to play their eight conference opponents and at least one Power Five or major independent opponent.

“Each team will play one permanent SEC opponent and then rotate the other seven league games. For the Oklahoma Sooners, they’ll face the Texas Longhorns each season. That’s a rivalry too valuable for the league to not have them meet each season in the Cotton Bowl.”

While this is not a multi-year deal, it is still a very significant story. We’ll explain that in the course of time, but first, we have to begin with the big question for Lincoln Riley: