Everyone in the sports world has been talking about college football realignment in the last several days. Ever since the report came out from the Houston Chronicle, the sports world has been captivated by what’s going to happen with the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns.
Even after a meeting with the Big 12, the schools made their intentions official when they announced yesterday that they would not be renewing their grant of rights agreement with the Big 12 when they expire in 2025.
Even at Dallas Cowboys training camp, the subject came up as The Athletic’s Jon Machota was talking with former Alabama Crimson Tide Cornerback Trevon Diggs.
Former Bama star Trevon Diggs on Oklahoma joining the SEC: "They should've been there. They've rolled thru everybody in the league they're in, so they can come play some big boy ball now. … They'll definitely be up there (in the SEC). They'll be one of those teams after Bama."
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) July 25, 2021
The Oklahoma Sooners have won six straight Big 12 Championships. They’re the favorite to win a seventh straight. As Diggs says, they’ve been rolling through the Big 12. At some point, a new challenge is needed. And by all accounts, the Southeastern Conference is where they’ll find it.
Trevon Diggs is no stranger to Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners, facing the Sooners in the 2018 Orange Bowl, a matchup the Crimson Tide won.
Based on our projections of how the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns would stack up in a newly realigned SEC, Diggs has it pegged pretty accurately.
The SEC has dominated the national championship landscape. Since Texas won the Big 12’s last national championship in 2005, the SEC has won 11 of the last 15 national championships spanning the Bowl Championship Series and College Football Playoff.
Though the Big 12 has been a strong conference during its time, it lost a bit of luster after the last round of realignment. The losses of Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Colorado hurt the conference though those schools have had mixed results since leaving. The reality is the Big 12 lost some of its brand power and depth with that last realignment.
The SEC presidents will meet this Thursday and it’s expected they’ll vote on adding Oklahoma and Texas to their membership. Universities hoping for admission require 11 of the 14 schools to vote “yes.”
After months of leg work out in by Oklahoma, Texas, and the SEC, it seems inevitable that the two Big 12 schools will be headed that direction.
Though there’s no telling at the moment exactly win a move to the SEC could occur, there’s some speculation it could come as early as 2022. Whenever it comes, new matchups and new rivalries are on the horizon for the Sooners.